Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday 

            Today we read the Passion from Saint Luke’s Gospel. Every evangelist gives his particular vision of the event. When we witness or hear about something that happened, we all have different recollections. Luke presents five specific details that are absent in the other three Gospels. The first one is about the night in the garden of olives. He uses the word “agony”, a word we use when somebody is dying, representing the last moments of a person’s life, the difficult struggle between life and death. Two other details from this scene are the sweating of blood produced by Jesus’ extreme stress, and the angel sent by God to console him, to avoid his premature death. God always sends us the help we need to go through our personal challenges.

            The second difference is related to Peter’s denials. After the third negation, the cock crowed and Jesus looked at Peter. There must have been a connection between the room where Jesus was and the place outside where Peter was warming himself at the fire. Their eyes met and they understood each other; no words were necessary; their faces said everything. Jesus had foretold what was going to happen, but Peter didn’t pay attention to it. Whenever we deny Jesus, or we stop acknowledging his presence, we need to look at him straight away, because he is constantly looking at us. Then we can weep like Peter and come back to him with a contrite heart.

            The third one is the narration of Pilate sending Jesus to Herod, because he found out that he was a Galilean and Herod was in charged of that region. Luke says that “Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.” Jesus in a way brought them together. Maybe today we can renew a friendship that has gone astray, or try to reach somebody who we consider our enemy.

            The fourth is the beautiful sentence Jesus said from the cross: “Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” It can be applied to us, because most of the time we don’t realise the implications of our actions, or we do not foresee the evil that is going to come from what we do, for ourselves and for others. Jesus from the cross, pleads to his Father for all of us. From his throne of mercy, from his suffering and death, he thinks about us; his Father is not going to deny him anything.

            The last one is about the good thief, the one who stole heaven at the last moment. He uttered a moving prayer from his cross: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” A great request for us to repeat over and over again. And Jesus answered him with determination: “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Today, not tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, you will be with me, together, in my kingdom. This is why Luke’s Gospel is called the Gospel of Mercy, the Gospel of Hope.

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