Joy & Victory
It is no mystery that Holy Week is an exciting time for Catholics. Starting on Palm Sunday, we experience a great many physical signs and symbols from waving palm branches to washing feet and venerating a cross. The Gospel readings further invite our communal participation, bringing to life the dramatic importance of Jesus’ Passion. Yet even as we recognize these signs, I find it equally important to recall their meaning.
I want to focus on palms. They aren’t just for making into crosses. Certainly, they remind us of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, but they also have a deeper connection to Salvation history. Grace Thierfelder shares in an article published by the Catholic Company the following insight:
“Date palms were very important to the Jews as they traversed the land with household, tent, and livestock. The palms revealed the presence of a lush valley. They meant food, shelter, nearby water, and even building materials. …
In I Maccabees, the Jews who remained faithful to the Torah fought to regain Israel from the Greek pagans. When they liberated Jerusalem, the faithful Jews rushed to the palms and cut boughs from them. They entered Jerusalem holding the palms to express their jubilance. A sense of victory was therefore added to the joy symbolized in the palm branch.””
The emphasis of the palm branch is joy and victory! Our holy week begins here, with the joy that Jesus is coming to bring fulfillment in a very essential way. We can think of Jesus as this ‘lush valley’, this source of nourishment found after wandering through the wilderness of our times. The start of this week with Palm Sunday reminds us specifically that Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem brings about our salvation in the most complete manner. I am caught on how we have spent the last forty days fasting and returning our hearts to the Lord. In the desert of grappling with fasting and our own hearts, Jesus does in fact come to lead us to the Living Water that is himself.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is also victorious, a thought that feels contrary to the remembrance of Christ’s Passion. During Palm Sunday Mass, the music captures the victorious attitude. I recall one time attending Mass on Palm Sunday in a warmer climate where we processed in from the sunny courtyard with our palms. That church had an entire band to proclaim the victorious spirit of the day. When we read the Passion narrative, it almost felt jarring. Yet it is important for us to remember that the agony and suffering Christ undergoes is victorious because through this unexpected avenue of the cross he redeems us from sin and reveals his mercy and love for each one of us. Jesus suffers to reveal to us the depths of the Living Water that is his mercy.
As you continue to prepare for Easter, I want to invite you to come and experience the other signs and symbols of Holy Week. Ask yourself if there is one way God is calling you to know him more this week. If you have never gone to a Holy Thursday Mass or Good Friday Service, consider attending and open your heart to receive how God chooses to come to you through these liturgies. In what way can you receive Jesus as the joy and victory of your life?