Palm-Passion Sunday, Year B

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
~Mark 11:9
 
Hosanna! The cry means, “Save us!” But from what do we need to be saved? This is an essential question. It seems the answer these days is as varied as our individual hurts and hungers, as our political and cultural divisions. Is it fair to say we all long for deeper connections, for more days of peace, intimacy, and well-being as did those who welcomed Jesus as he entered Jerusalem? Can we say together we long for the distribution of resources—of food and clothing, shelter and safety—so that no one is hungry or exposed or disconnected from human well-being? Can we agree on our common desire for belonging? For dignity? For meaning?
 
How to get there, of course, opens us to all sorts of polarities. How might we shape the work to draw on diverse wisdom and varied perceptions? In what ways do “all the law and the prophets” and the hope of our scriptures speak into this longing, into our cry for salvation? Is there a possibility of alignment here that might open us to a better way?
 
Mark’s Palm Sunday entry signals another entry for us in the church—into Holy Week, and its concentrated attention to what does and does not save us, what makes for life and well-being.
 
Enter into worship. Enter into Holy Week.
 
Readings: (Palms) Mark 11:1-11 † Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 † (Passion) Isaiah 50:4-9a † Psalm 31:9-16 † Philippians 2:5-11 † Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Palm Sunday, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58531 [retrieved March 4, 2024]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

​About the artist:
Peter Koenig is a Catholic artist whose goal in life is “to paint the drama, romance and poetry of the sacred book” (https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/).

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