Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

The liturgy doesn't let you be a bystander. You wave the palms. You shout hosanna. Then you hear the Passion and find yourself in every character.

Judas: you've betrayed someone for less than thirty silver pieces. Peter: you've sworn loyalty and then denied it when it got uncomfortable. Pilate: you've known the truth and washed your hands of it because the cost of acting was too high. The crowd: you've chosen the easy option over the right one.

That's not guilt-tripping. That's the whole point. The Passion isn't about bad people doing bad things to Jesus. It's about ordinary people - people like us - caught in systems of fear, self-preservation, and cowardice.

Paul names the counter-story: though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself. While we were grasping, he was releasing. While we were running, he was walking toward the cross.

Psalm 22 is his prayer from inside the darkness: my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Even the cry of desolation is addressed to God. Even in the worst moment, there's a You.

Take your palm home. It's not a souvenir. It's a witness. It says: I was there. I walked with him. I am in the crowd. And he died for the crowd anyway.