Palm Sunday: Gospel B

When they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply, 'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'"

· How did Jesus know this? One of the gifts of the Spirit, which Jesus exercised at times, is the gift of word of knowledge.  Another time Jesus used this gift was the time he told Peter to go fishing and the first fish he will catch will have a coin in its mouth. This coin was to pay the temple tax for Jesus and Peter. Jesus knew this through insight from the Spirit.

· Have you ever experienced this in your life?

So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it. So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" 

· If you were a bystander on the road, what would you have thought? If you were someone familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, what would you have thought? If you were a disciple of Jesus, what would you have thought? The response of each would be different, why?

· Mark refrains from identifying Jesus as the Messiah until after his death and resurrection.  He pictures Jesus as a prophet from God who comes in the name of the Lord.

· This week—Holy Week—is an important grace moment for all of us. How will you enter into the different liturgical celebrations beginning with the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, the Lord’s Passion on Friday, his burial and resurrection? Will this be a business-as-usual-week or will it truly be a Holy Week in your life?

· Will your focus on Good Friday by Jesus’ suffering and death or on others?

· Looking back over these weeks of Lent, did we accomplish what we set out to do? Has it been a spiritually fruitful Lent?