IT’S Palm Sunday this weekend, the beginning of Holy Week! We also call this Sunday, Passion Sunday, because we commemorate the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem to be crucified, to die, and to rise again for the redemption of the whole world and mankind.
As we read and listen to the narration of the Passion of Christ this Sunday, we’d realize God’s solidarity with the entire human race. Jesus Christ’s willingness to suffer and to die on the cross in obedience to his Father, revealed God’s absolute and everlasting love for us all. God doesn’t want us to suffer eternally the pains of sin and death; he wants to bring healing, wholeness, and peace into our lives. He desires that all experience new life on earth and at the time of death.
Indeed, Jesus Christ’s entrance into the city of Jerusalem was symbolic of God’s love for the whole human race. Like any other city during the biblical times, Jerusalem was a bustling city of all kinds of people: rich and poor, believers and atheists, saints and sinners, glamorous and humble people, educated and uneducated people, sick and healthy people, ordinary and extraordinary men and women. It was for all these people that Jesus embraced the cross of suffering and death; it was for all of them that Christ resurrected. This message would be proclaimed to the whole world in the following ages.
We have so much to learn from God’s salvific action. Like him, we too need to learn the meaning of solidarity and to put it into practice in our relationships. We too have to suffer for one another, to help carry each other’s crosses, to understand each other’s pain, to accept each other’s weaknesses, to embrace one another as brothers and sisters despite our differences. These are not easy to do but they are ways to show our genuine concern for one another.
We’re called to be in communion with our family members, friends, colleagues and fellow church members. We’re called to respect one another and to show kindness and compassion to all.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case for many Christians. How many Christians genuinely exercise their faith? Oftentimes, we hear of Christians who are racist, sexist, selfish and arrogant. How many Christians live up to their belief through their actions?
There are churches that are still exclusive and unwelcoming. There are even ministers, preachers, bishops, priests and seminarians that are arrogant and indifferent to other people and to one another. Churches and other Christian institutions should be places where people experience love, mercy, and acceptance, but oftentimes they are places where they feel excluded, misunderstood and unappreciated; where they get scandalized and disgruntled by the hypocrisy of fellow church members and the hierarchy.
This Palm Sunday is the time to reflect on how we practice solidarity with all people. It shouldn’t be a mere ritual or tradition that is empty of love, mercy, and compassion. It should be an event by which our hearts and minds are enlightened and transformed to be in communion or solidarity with one another.
A Blessed Sunday to all!
* * *
From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
