Palm Sunday

Dear Friends

Today's Gospel is filled with the heaviness of our human experience. From betrayal, to confusion, doubt, denial, stubbornness, fear, disappointment, weakness, pride, violence, deceit, frustration, and ultimately intense suffering. In just a few minutes, we journeyed through the depths of what it means to be human. And by the end of the Gospel, we experience the intensity of God taking on all of these elements - culminating in His death - so that we do not have to stay in the depths. Hebrews 4:15 says that "we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses". Jesus knows all that we are going through, the very worst of it. And He took upon Himself the ultimate suffering, which we read today, and throughout this Holy Week shows us that suffering is not the final word in our story. Evil does not triumph. As Christians, we have hope - a theological virtue that we will be united with love eternally- because of what God does for us this Holy Week.

Friends, I invite you to not take this week for granted, or this long Gospel. There is a special reverence for this week that we should all hold. In the Byzantine Catholic rite, there is a prayer recited by every person before they receive the Eucharist. I was reminded of this prayer when reading today's Gospel. May we all contemplate these words in our hearts:

Accept me today as a partaker of your mystical supper, O Son of God, For I will not reveal your mystery to your enemies, Nor will I give you a kiss as did Judas, But like the thief I profess to you: Remember me, O Lord, when you come in your kingdom.

Have a blessed Holy Week!

Amy Bishop