Reflection for Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

By Judith Moe McCallum, Notre Dame Associate

Reading from Mark 11:1-11

When I was a child our mother shaped Palm Sunday fronds into crosses. Seventy years later, one of the crosses still adorns the kitchen in my family home, offering a sense of peace and welcoming.

When Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. Jesus asked two of his disciples to go ahead to the next village and bring him a donkey’s colt so that he might ride. They placed their garments on the colt for Christ to serve as blankets and placed palm fronds along his path, calling out: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest.” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. But as it was late, He went to Bethany with the twelve.

We ask so much of Christ as we lay our burdens at his feet, burdens he willingly carries with us. Yet soon, He will be burdened. And I think, on this Palm Sunday, can we do something for Christ?

Can we lay out our own blankets and palm fronds in the form of prayer offerings, welcoming him with love easing His way for what is to come?

Then let us proclaim:

‘‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,

Hosanna in the Highest!”