The inseparably connected events of the triumphal entry of the Divine Redeemer into Jerusalem and the sufferings of His Sorrowful Passion remind us that the prospect of the Cross is always framed by the certainty of future glory.

Newsroom (01/04/2023 19:15, Gaudium Press) When considering on Palm Sunday the triumphal entry of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, we must keep in mind that the Liturgy is not only a remembrance of historical events, but above all an occasion to receive the same graces created by God at that moment, and distributed to the Jewish people who were there. This is why the Catholic Church encourages the faithful to repeat this ceremony symbolically, so as to begin Holy Week with a well-prepared soul.

Triumph foreshadowing the glory of the Resurrection

This first aspect of today’s celebration, centred on the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, teaches us what a mistake it is to conceive the Redemption accomplished by our Lord as centred only on pain. Also, and perhaps above all, it involves the joy of the Resurrection, because if the sufferings of Jesus extended from Thursday night until the ninth hour of Friday, and His soul was separated from His body for about thirty-nine hours, as can be deduced from the Gospel accounts, the period of glory lasted forty days here on earth and remains for all eternity in Heaven.

This was the notion that the Apostles lacked when they saw the Divine Master become sad, sweat blood and let Himself be taken by vile soldiers. In fact, they no longer remembered the repeated announcements that He had made to them concerning His Death and Resurrection on the third day (cf. Mt 17:21-22; 20:18-19). Our Lady, on the other hand, although full of sorrow and with her heart pierced by a sword (cf. Lk 2:35), did not faint because She kept in the depths of her soul the certainty that her Son would rise again. And when He came forth from the tomb, in the fullness of His majesty, She was surely the first person to whom Jesus appeared, as we have already had occasion to comment on.

A key to considering the Lord’s Passion

Let us contemplate today’s Liturgy with this in mind, reliving those moments of joy when Jesus entered the Holy City, with a view to passing later through the anguish of the Passion and the joys of the Resurrection. May the graces poured out on all the participants in that first procession, in which the Redeemer was present, descend upon us and fill our souls, making us understand well the role of suffering in our lives as Roman Catholic and Apostolic, as an indispensable means to reach the final and definitive glory. Pain and triumph are magnificently interwoven here. Per crucem ad lucem! – It is through the cross that we reach the light!

By Guilherme Motta

Compiled by Sandra Chisholm, with adaptations, from: CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio, Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels. Città del Vaticano-São Paulo: LEV-Instituto Lumen Sapientiæ, 2012, v. 1, pp. 248-253.