Palm sunday

 

1.  PRAYER

Prayer for Humility and Praise

"Lord Jesus Christ, on this Palm Sunday, as we remember Your triumphant entry into Jerusalem, let us also remember the path that lay before You. Fill our hearts with the humility and faithfulness that You displayed. Teach us to follow Your example of selfless love, to praise You in our hearts and with our lives, as we carry our crosses daily. Hosanna in the Highest!"

2.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/uI0oMw-ncZo?si=vLi0o7oYuGOiMWc1

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/mG6thyHErVc?si=wE5ehPYwRFwn1gtx

4.  NARRATIVE

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Palm Sunday

Jesus’ state was divine, yet he did not cling to equality with God, but he emptied himself. 
—Philippians 2:6–7  

Father Richard Rohr reflects on Jesus’ surrender to God through a path of descent:   

In the overflow of rich themes on Palm Sunday, I am going to direct us toward the great parabolic movement described in Philippians 2. Most New Testament scholars consider that this was originally a hymn sung in the early Christian community. To give us an honest entranceway, let me offer a life-changing quote from C. G. Jung (1875–1961):    

In the secret hour of life’s midday the parabola is reversed, death is born. The second half of life does not signify ascent, unfolding, increase, exuberance, but death, since the end is its goal. The negation of life’s fulfilment is synonymous with the refusal to accept its ending. Both mean not wanting to live, and not wanting to live is identical with not wanting to die. Waxing and waning make one curve. [1]  

The hymn from Philippians artistically, honestly, yet boldly describes that “secret hour” Jung refers to, when God in Christ reversed the parabola, when the waxing became waning. It starts with the great self-emptying or kenosis that we call the incarnation and ends with the crucifixion. It brilliantly connects the two mysteries as one movement, down, down, down into the enfleshment of creation, into humanity’s depths and sadness, and into a final identification with those at the very bottom (“took the form of a slave,” Philippians 2:7). Jesus represents God’s total solidarity with, and even love of, the human situation, as if to say, “nothing human is abhorrent to me.”  

God, if Jesus is right, has chosen to descend—in almost total counterpoint with our humanity that is always trying to climb, achieve, perform, and prove itself. This hymn says that Jesus leaves the ascent to God, in God’s way, and in God’s time. Most of us understandably start the journey assuming that God is “up there,” and our job is to transcend this world to find God. We spend so much time trying to get “up there,” we miss that God’s big leap in Jesus was to come “down here.” What freedom! And it ends up better than any could have expected. “Because of this, God lifted him up” (Philippians 2:9). We call the “lifting up” resurrection or ascension. Jesus is set as the human blueprint, the oh-so-hopeful pattern of divine transformation.   

Trust the down, and God will take care of the up. This leaves humanity in solidarity with the life cycle, and also with one another, with no need to create success stories for ourselves or to create failure stories for others. Humanity in Jesus is free to be human and soulful instead of any false climbing into “Spirit.” This was supposed to change everything, and I trust it still will.   

References:   
[1] C. G. Jung, Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of His Writings, 1905–1961, ed. Jolande Jacobi (Princeton University Press, 1970), 323.  

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2011), 122–124.   

5.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/RNeLU-5yR04?si=5b-a4G5ifReYFIjt

6.  SHARING

1. What speaks to your heaty from the reading?

2. We are in the 5th week of Lent. How might you

be changed from Ash Wednesday?

7.  PRAYER

A Palm Sunday Prayer to Rejoice in Hope

Father, Palm Sunday is a reminder of the unexpected, yet fully anticipated, King of Kings. Jesus did not look like the Messiah Your people hoped for. The way He entered the Holy City of Jerusalem on that day, riding a young donkey as a significant sign of peace and fulfillment of prophecy, did not align with their expectations of a military conqueror. Much of our daily lives don’t align with our expectations, Father. So much of our lives don’t make sense. This Palm Sunday, let us embrace the unexpected entrance of our Savior, Jesus. He is Peace. Let us apply this incredible truth to our lives. Peace mattered to Jesus. He came to bring us Peace. He is peace. Father, how quickly we forget the Peace we possess in Christ! Remind us, minute by minute, as we navigate difficult days and trying times. Father, we need Peace to live life to the full, as Jesus died for us to live.

8.  SONG

https://youtu.be/HWPv-z2gfLY?si=PUSYC4jBNT_q1hWe