Palm Sunday (Year A)

 The concept of "Messiah" is immensely important to understanding the events of Plam Sunday, indeed the whole of Jesus' mission, and how the Jewish authorities, in particular, reacted to it. We can sometimes overlook this significance because we use the Greek word "Christ," as a rule, even to the extent that it becomes his surname. Every time we profess "Jesus Christ" we are affirming "Jesus Messiah." This means we are one with the crowd on Palm Sunday who recognized Jesus as the one chosen by God to liberate his people. He does so, not as many were expecting, by freeing them from Roman rule, but rather by freeing them from sin and death and the rule of Satan. This victory, brought about through his passion, death and resurrection, means that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah for the Jewish people but for the whole of humanity: "Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2: 9-11)