Photo: @wamutune @Brownstown Jamaica

Today is Palm Sunday2023. Palms were symbols of life among the nomadic tribes, who, when crossing the desert, rejoiced at seeing the palm tree as it indicated an oasis with life-giving water was near. Palms have long been a sign of victory, success, and glory.

The theme for today will be drawn from Psalms 22 

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” is a very familiar statement in our very own lives. 

When life has no meaning, 

When the sickness of those we love drains us 

When the country we live in turns violent and the communities we live in turn into war zones, it can seem to have no meaning. 

Betrayal has become normalized in our society today and the death of innocent people is just like a slap of a fly on the wall. 

When we have nothing that the words of the psalmist to repeat, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 

When no word can make no meaning we end up asking ourselves, “What did I do wrong?”

                            What did I do wrong? 

This is a question we all keep asking ourselves from time to time: 

It may be a different structure like “I am tired of this” but it all comes back to 

What did I do wrong? To deserve this……..?

Many of us chew back on this question for weeks, months, and years. 

We have all these memories of how we have been mistreated and the way we have been wronged in unhealthy ways. And they linger in our minds so frequently that we can see no goodness in anything that is happening in our lives. 

Still, many of us get in our old age asking the same question, over and over again. But there are no answers to some questions. At least no answers that will satisfy us. What we are sure of is that one question answered gives birth to five more questions. One of life’s enduring mysteries is that you don’t have to do anything wrong for your life to go horribly wrong. You do not have to be of a certain color, culture or background to be betrayed.

Jesus did not have to be a daan to be killed. 

When we are abused, rejected, hurt, betrayed, or manipulated, we search our hearts and minds, wondering what we did wrong.

Maybe you did things to open or close doors, but it is not your fault. People make choices and they hurt us, but it’s not our fault. Don’t take it personally. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s profoundly true. 

Jesus in the gospel of today is suffering from the wickedness and snares of the Jewish religious leaders. It is true that his mission on earth was to die to save us from our sins. To do this, he had to prove himself as God. He did this by performing so many miracles which were seen as messianic signs. Unfortunately, the Jewish religious leaders got offended by these miracles simply because they were afraid everyone would abandon them and follow Jesus. In order to avoid such a situation, they plotted to take away the life of Jesus. Hearing this, Jesus left that region precisely because his hour had not yet come.

      It is common in our society that several times we have done good, only for those good things to turn into evil in the sight of those who do not want to see us. Those we do good to or their families take it into their hands to destroy us, out of jealousy or envy. But we should not be discouraged by such attitudes. We need always to strive to think and work towards the good of all, rather than planning evil in the lives of others. 

On other hand, it might be some are suffering presently because of our jealousy, envy, wickedness, gossip, telling lies, false accusations, etc. These things do not help us in any way. They only go to strain our relationships, with ourselves first then those close to us and it extends to society and to the world. 

     May we pray today for the graces to think about the good of all and avoid planning evil against others, especially the innocent ones. 

1. Better things are coming 

• God’s timing is the best and no matter the circumstances, things will get better. t was after three days He rose from the dead and took His seat on the right hand of God. 

2. Bigger things are coming 

• They killed him for claiming to be the Son of God but now that they have done it, He resumed His position at the right hand of God the Father. Painful moments are just for a while, bigger things are coming our way. 

3. Brighter things are coming 

• His blood nourishes us for ages since He dies, and no matter the circumstances we know we are victorious.