We are now here at the last ‘regular’ Sunday of Lent. Next week begins Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday.
Our opening song each and every week this Lenten season is “Save Your People” by J. Farrell, reminding us that it’s still not too late to turn to Him. He will always be there for us.
“Save your people, O Lord.
Show us the way to come home.
We have been wandering far from your love.
Save your people, O Lord.
One thing I ask, O Lord, this I seek:
to dwell forever in your house,
that I may gaze on your loveliness all the days of my life.”
In our Gospel, we are now at the time for the Passover Feast. Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem is impending and going to happen next Sunday. We hear God speaking once again from the heavens, and once again, many do not recognize it (they think it’s thunder?) or understand the meaning. We need to start preparing ourselves to enter into Jerusalem with Jesus and all that it entails. Are we ready to carry our own cross with Him?
We conclude our Mass with “Take Up Your Cross,” once again it references the Gospel with the comparison between taking up our own cross in order to wear the crown he wore:
Take up your cross, the Savior said, if you would my disciple be;
Deny yourself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after me.
Take up your cross, and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down;
For only they who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown.