Passion (Palm) Sunday, 2011
St. Macartan’s Cathedral,
Monaghan.
My dear friends,
To day we begin the most solemn and significant week of the Church’s year of worship. We begin in wedding-like manner with a warm and colourful welcome of the Lord to Jerusalem. Listening to Matthew’s account of the passion and death of Jesus Christ leads us into a darker side of this week and a darker side of all our journeys through life. Because we are not spectators at the events commemorated in this week’s ceremonies; we are participants. We walk with Jesus Christ on his journey and we grow towards the point where we can follow and imitate him in coping with human weakness, betrayal, rejection, violence, unjust judgement, suffering, the wrath of a crowd, forgiveness, death and we are brought as close as we can be in this life to facing the mystery of life beyond death. It merits the title Holy Week and can be a huge week for anyone who opens his mind and heart to what God is offering us.
+Liam S. MacDaid
Bishop of Clogher
