Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord is the official name of this liturgical celebration. Holy Week starts with the festive celebration when Jesus enters Jerusalem. People welcomed Him by spreading their cloaks on the road while others spread reeds they have cut in the field. Still, others got palm branches and met Jesus with a joyful cry, Hosanna! Blessed be He who comes in the name of the Lord. But the sad thing is that a few days later the same people will be shouting, Crucify him! Crucify him!

As we approach Holy Week, the Gospel reveals to us the things that will happen to Jesus. It does not give us all the details, but Jesus nears the fulfillment of His mission. He speaks about the whole Paschal Mystery in the image of the “grain of wheat that dies to produce much fruit.” Jesus introduces this image after some Greeks approach His disciples searching to deepen their spiritual life.

The religious leaders and the people have violated their covenant relationship with Yahweh, not respecting the Sabbath rest and desecrating the Temple. Warned before of the consequences of refusing God’s commandment, they still persisted. The conquest by King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian captivity was God’s way of punishing them. Not until they have repented, restored the Sabbath-rest did they appease Yahweh. Finally, only after a decree of Cyrus, did they return to Jerusalem and restored the Temple.

The first reading talks about the Law. Following the Law constitutes true worship of God. The second reading and the Gospel are more or less related: Christ’s death on the cross, the temple of the body is destroyed but will rise again. Because the cross is the symbol of the mystery of Salvation, it made Christianity a religion of the cross. For the Jews of His time, death on the cross was a scandal of the highest level. For the pagan Greeks, it was utter foolishness. But to believers, those called: the death of Christ was part of the Divine Plan of Salvation, foretold by the prophets long ago. In an effort to offset and lessen the impact of this scandal, some of the teachings in the New Testament consist of trying to remove or transcend the scandal of the cross. Especially in the minds and the hearts of the converts.

God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (first reading). God gave His Son for our sake: He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all (second reading). The same Son Jesus: foretold His suffering transfigured to offset the scandal of His crucifixion.

In the first reading, Noah went into the ark, and God saves him and his family from the flood. God establishes a covenant with Noah, now he and his family will start a new life under this covenant. Peter says God renews ourcovenant with Him through the waters of baptism (second reading). God has given us new life. In the Gospel, Jesus is the new covenant who conquers Satan and all his temptations.

Lepers in the book of Leviticus should dwell away from the community, cry out unclean, unclean, and must follow the imposed disciplinary actions for leprosy. But Jesus in the Gospel shows pity on the leper and willed Him: I do will it. Be made clean. The second reading's independent theme is: Whatever we do, we shall do for the honor of God, imitating Christ.

Job says: life, especially sickness, is a drudgery. The book of Job deals with the question and problem that many people struggle with: Why does God permit human suffering through death, sickness, and poverty? Up to this time, traditional Jewish belief that God rewards the just and punishes the evildoers. Thus, sufferings were considered a punishment from God. Job did not know much about the life after. God revealed this only at a later time in the Book of Wisdom. And more fully in the New Testament. Job did not understand it, but he will never doubt the justice and fairness of God.

The description of a future messenger of God fits any prophets in the Old Testament. Yahweh grants the request of the office of the prophet as the mediator between God and the people. But God will also send a final prophet, the eschatological prophet of the end times. Some see Jesus as the fulfillment of the eschatological prophet. The early Christian community saw Christ as the final prophet.

The 1st reading tells us how God shows infinite mercy even to a pagan nation, as long as they repent their deeds and believe His messenger (Jonah). The people of Nineveh listened to the message of Jonah and repented and showed sincere acts of penance: The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth. (Jon. 3:5)

John the Evangelist uses the theme of the Lamb of God a lot in his Gospel and the book of Revelation. For John the Baptist, Jesus is the Lamb of God in the Gospel of John. The symbolism of the lamb as an innocent sacrifice has its origin in the Old Testament. In the Temple liturgy, an innocent lamb is sacrificed as a holocaust or burnt offering. The burnt offering stresses the victim character of the offering.

The lamb is a symbol of innocent, harmless, and endearing sacrifice to depict the Savior, the Lamb of God. The prophets use these unique characteristics of the lamb to refer to the Messiah, the Christ. The lamb’s symbolism has a rich history and is explicitly associated with the temple liturgy with the character of a salvific sacrifice. The life of the Lamb is sacrificed in place of the life of a human person and offered to God instead. In the book of Exodus, a lamb was sacrificed in place of every firstborn son of Israel on the eve of their departure from Egypt. A lamb was also sacrificed at the Last Supper table, on the eve of Jesus crucifixion. Aside from its sacrificial theme, the meat of the sacrificed lamb is food. While the wool and the skin are made cloaks to protect man from the elements of nature.

The Baptism of the Lord is full of mystery and meaning. Jesus Christ a carpenter’s son is the awaited Messiah, the Son of God the Father, the Holy Servant of God who is the perfect instrument to accomplish the plan of God for Salvation. Through the Son, Jesus, the Holy Spirit restfully, the sevenfold fullness as foreseen by the prophets. (Is. 11:13) Fully invested by the Spirit He will accomplish the role of the Messiah and Savior of the world, in gentleness and love, symbolized by a dove (and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him). The Spirit of God symbolized loving kindness, mercy, and compassion.

The entire chapter 1 of the Gospel of Matthew tells us about the origin of Jesus. While chapter 2 deals with Jesus' mission and life's purpose. He is the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy: He is a King, a new and greater king than David. The prophecies fulfilled - the star that signals His birth (Num. 24 :17), Bethlehem where the Messiah is born: From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel (Mic. 5:1), kings of the

earth coming to pay honor to God and offering gifts and worship (Is. 49 :23, 60 :5-6; Ps. 72. 10-15). The child to be born is the Son of God who accomplishes the work of salvation that Israel did not accomplished. The Magi (not Jews) visit represents the Gentiles invited to salvation through Jesus Christ.