Palm Sunday AD 2024

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the culmination of which is the celebration of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, became man for us. He knows our needs and hopes, He knows our pain and suffering, He also knows what we need for true happiness and joy.

Upon all of us, each individual as well as the entire human race, there is a shadow constantly hanging over us – the shadow of mortality and death. In addition to death, this shadow includes all kinds of trials, unfulfilled longings, disappointments, as well as diseases and other sufferings, whether natural or caused by the envy, malice and injustice of other people. All this may make us question whether our life is worth living at all.

The only possible answer to this question is that life is definitely worth living but, in order to find and see what makes it worth living, we need to learn to see the small things alongside the big ones or even before the big ones.

It is said that the entire universe is small to one looking through a telescope, but to one looking through a microscope, the smallest thing is immeasurable. Take a flower, a leaf of a tree, even an annoying insect like a mosquito or a fly. Take a closer look and you will discover there an incredible world full of beauty and perfection.

This is how God looks at us: probably not with wonder or admiration, but certainly with love, for which He was ready to give Himself. God knows us through and through and has sent his Son, as the Prophet says, “to speak a word in season to him that is weary”.

Christ gave everything for us. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He died for us as a lover dies for the beloved – not because we deserve it, but because in His love He could not do otherwise.

When Jesus came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He was greeted with cheers and songs of praise. It didn’t last long because people’s minds are fickle and their hearts treacherous. But God is faithful, and His love is unchanging and unbreakable, so we can always rely on it. The Prophet says that even he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light – let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.

Thanks to God, our unfaithfulness cannot break God’s faithfulness, nor can our ingratitude overcome His love.