When people go on trips and visit new places, they often look for and collect souvenirs to bring home such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, jewelry, or art work made by a local artist.
After my last fun-filled day at Disneyland several years ago, I joined other shoppers looking at the last minute for that perfect souvenir. My friend, Bob, persuaded me to buy this cap since Fantasia is one of my favorite movies. Souvenirs are reminders of where we have been, what we have heard and seen, and what we have done. Souvenirs along with our snapshots are the next best thing to be being there.
Today, each of us has received a souvenir of Holy Week, a simple yet powerful reminder of a trip we have just begun. Our souvenir is a palm branch. Hopefully, you will take this branch home and keep it in sight as a reminder of the tour St. Mark has just taken us on.
From Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, where a woman anointed Jesus with perfumed oil, we ventured to Jerusalem where Jesus and his disciples gathered for one last meal, a meal that has been celebrated many times since all over the world. We then continued on to Gethsemane to the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed and the disciples slept and Jesus asked if they could keep watch for one hour.
But Mark’s tour didn’t end there. We have also been to the high priest’s courtyard, where Peter denied Jesus three times and heard the cock crow, to the praetorium, to a hilltop called Golgotha, and finally to a tomb where a stone was rolled across the entrance.
Our palm branch reminds us of what we have seen and heard. From the words of praise as Jesus entered the city riding a colt, to the angry words of a fickle crowd that just a few days later shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” From the words of anguish as Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” to the centurion’s words of awe, “Truly, this man was the son of God!”
This palm branch is our precious souvenir of the passion and death of Jesus. I urge you not to toss this palm branch out but to treat it with reverence and respect when you get home, for this simple souvenir is a vivid reminder of Jesus’ immense love for you.
But these branches are more than simple souvenirs of times past. As we venture into the holiest week of the year, they are an invitation to recount our salvation history.
Lent ends at sundown this Thursday. That is when the Triduum begins, the three most sacred days of the year for us. We will follow Jesus to the last supper. The next evening on Good Friday as we begin the second day of the Triduum, we witness his suffering and death as we gather to recall the passion according to St. John and venerate the cross. The third day of the Triduum begins on Holy Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil.
At the vigil, weather permitting, we gather in darkness at 9 to be startled by the paschal fire, a visual reminder that Christ, our light, has risen from the dead to dispel the darkness of sin from our lives. Then we will welcome those who have been preparing for full initiation into our Church to be one with us at the Lord’s Table. The Triduum ends at sundown on Easter. Come and journey with us through all three days.
A week from today, your palm branch will be more than just a souvenir of this day; it will be our trophy over sin and death, a sign and symbol to hang proudly in our homes as a reminder that someday we too will rise from the dead!