Palm Sunday: What are We Doing?

Hosanna was a nationalist, revolutionary cry o the lips of an oppressed people,  Hosanna was political, inflammatory.  Jesus, deciding to enter Jerusalem on that donkey,in emulation of a prophetic image from Micah about the coming messianic king, signed his own death warrant.  I want to be clear with you that, in the late gospels of Luke an John, the authority and role of Jewish authorities in the execution of Jesus are grossly exaggerated and the authority and role of Roman authorities are grossly understated.  That reflects the Church's attempt to establish peaceful relations with the Empire an the failure of the mainstream Jews to convert to the Jesus Movement.

George Gallup, the great pollster, once quipped that early Christians went to Jerusalem, as Muslims go to Mecca and Baptists to Tulsa.  The early faithful went to Jerusalem to walk the path of Jesus and to see the places he had been.  From the fourth century those who could not make the pilgrimage to the Holy City had a procession with palms in their local church.  We continue that practice some sixteen centuries later.  As we sang hosanna and entered our worship space, we were joined to the stream of countless faithful before us.  We acknowledged salvation.

But how are the events of this week salvific?  How do Good Friday and Easter reconcile us Suday to God.  That free gift is itself a mystery.  Over two millenia humans have tried to unpack that mystery.  More than a doesn't theories of the atonement, attempts to "explain" salvation, have been uttered  None is infallible, none is comprehensive.  We are called to live into that mystery with grateful hearts.  This week we relive the last days of Jesus.  We walked the triumphal entry this morning, we will visit the last fourteen events of his life in the Stations on Tuesday.  We will be there for Jesus' celebration of the Last Supper/First Mass on Thursday night.  We will watch with him one hour through the night  Then on Friday we will go with Mary and with John to the Cross.  Finally, on Sunday we will experience and celebrate once more God's victory over the Dark Side