Today’s celebration of Palm Sunday marks our annual remembrance of
Jesus’ Passion and the Church’s entry into the solemnities of Holy Week.
It provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the incredible love that moved God Himself to take up a cross that was not His responsibility and bear the weight of our sins. This is also a time to reflect on how Jesus’ suffering gives meaning to our own.

A few years ago, before I was a priest, I was gathered with my family at the bedside of my aunt who was dying at far too young an age after a far too long battle with cancer. For days we found ourselves praying, crying, sharing stories and laughs, and going through every range of emotion known to man. A few of us found ourselves looking out the window at a beautiful day, with cars and people streaming back and forth, busy with the affairs of the day. My uncle, who had been a pillar of strength through this entire ordeal, captured the thoughts of everyone looking out the window when he said “Isn’t it amazing? Your entire world can be grinding to a halt, and everybody else just goes about their business like nothing is happening.” The indifference of the world in the face of such suffering can make our lives seem impossibly small and insignificant.
 
But the entirety of human suffering, even when it feels ignored by the world around us, is taken up into the Cross of Our Savior. Holy Week is a time to forget how the world views suffering and embrace what Jesus did to remedy it. In addition to the weight of our sin, Jesus takes with Him to the Cross our pain. Our loss. Our fear. Our wounds and brokenness. If we are willing to surrender them to the foot of the Cross and leave our worries and struggles there, Jesus will transform them through the Passion and Death that He willingly endured for you and for me. The only sins that are not forgiven are the ones of which we refuse to let go.

This Holy Week, my prayer for you is that you recognize any obstacles that are holding you back from committing entirely to Jesus. There is no sin or barrier on earth, no matter how complex or shameful it might seem, that can overcome the power of the Sacraments which flows forth from the foot of the Cross. I hope to see as many of you as possible at the celebrations of the Triduum this week, so that as a family we can experience Our Lord’s Passion, and enter into His Mercy.

Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough