Palm Sunday Inner Thoughts

Today is a good day to go to church for so many reasons. The sun is shining brightly, and I am leaving home just in time to catch the bus that will take me to St. Norbert’s Catholic Church.

I am joining the 10 a.m. mass, but I am already in church 30 minutes early. I decide to wait in the lobby to listen a little bit to the Italian mass, which started at 7 a.m. I can hear Fr. Augusto speak in his mother tongue. I don’t understand every word he says but upon seeing the churchgoers nod their heads among each other, I can already tell this is the giving of the “sign of peace.”

I am not the only early bird. Four other seniors have been waiting in the lobby. They are busy figuring out how to make a cross out of a palm grass, which is provided today for the Palm Sunday observation.

Upon entering the church and finding my seat, I tried to follow the “How to Make a Palm Cross” instruction that I found online. It was pretty easy. A few folds and I was able to make my first Palm Sunday cross.

A woman, who I recognize as a lector, passes by and saw my cross. “Very well done! You’ve got to teach me how to do that,” she told me.

I smiled and responded with a thank you. I thought, “It’s not perfect, but so am I.” And she proceeded to sit in front, preparing for the mass.

The church is full today. In fact, the space downstairs has been opened to accommodate more people. The mass is streamed there, too.

The priest did not add anything in the homily, but he wanted us to reflect on the Palm Sunday story. “Identify who you are in the story. You can be Peter, Joseph, people, Mary Magdalene, etc. Sometimes, you can be Peter today and Pontius Pilate the next day.”

I don’t know who am I in the story. I would never know. But today reminds me that God gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to save me —- a nobody.

How are you observing the Palm Sunday?