Throughout the Lenten season, we are posting reflections for holy days and Sundays. These reflections are taken from this year’s Lenten reflection booklet, Peace compels us, which includes all-new reflections written by Michael Angel Martin and Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., who wrote the reflection below.
Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2026 webpage.
REFLECTION FOR Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026
by Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.
Pax Christi USA Bishop President
Matthew 21:1-11 (37) | Isaiah 50:4-7 | Philippians 2:6-11 | Matthew 26:14—27:66 or 27:11-54
In what may be the most dramatic liturgy of the year if done with the full procession, we hear two gospels proclaimed. The first describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of the week in which he will lay down his life. It is this reading, describing the crowds in Jerusalem waving the palm branches which gives today its most common name. The second describes the events from the Last Supper through Jesus’ burial and is referred to as the Passion; this Sunday is officially called the Sunday of the Lord’s Passion in Palms.
The juxtaposition of an apparent victory parade and the complete rejection of Jesus the Messiah by the crowds is striking. The gospels tell us that Jesus entered the city on a donkey, a beast of burden and the means of transport of the poor. Jesus, the King of Israel, has no war horse. He enters without soldiers or bodyguards, despite the threats against him. The crowds that gathered were partially his companions from along the way, and no doubt some curious folks eager to be part of the action. Waving palms was a gesture of victory, in this case a prophetic one. Things do not continue on that high note as the week progresses. Remember the temptation from the first Sunday of Lent’s gospel, the temptation to take the easy path? This ragtag crowd around Jesus would have eagerly crowned him a king, and probably could have been armed to protect him from the religious leaders and the Romans. But Jesus incarnates the suffering of humanity as was graphically described in the first reading from Isaiah. He comes to transform suffering, not to create suffering for others through violence.
Obviously there are many moments which we might contemplate in the Passion narrative from Matthew: preparations for and the sharing in the Passover meal, the agony with which Jesus prayed before he was arrested, Jesus’ multiple betrayals and being led to trials before the Sanhedrin (religious leaders) and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, the death sentence pronounced on Jesus by the crowds despite his being called innocent, mockery and cruelty by the soldiers with license to do what they please (not unlike today’s ICE officers in too many places), carrying the cross to Calvary, crucifixion and death. We might stop and ponder each of these moments and ask which members of the body of Christ are experiencing them today: death sentences even of the innocent, the betrayal by friends, unwarranted arrests, and the cruelty of those in power towards the vulnerable.
To reinforce the nonviolent option of Jesus as expressed in his entrance to the city, at the time of his arrest, Jesus rebukes one of his followers who draws a sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant. “All who take the sword will perish by the sword.” A lesson that humanity has failed to learn, made all the more precarious by weapons much stronger than swords in use today. Jesus resists the easy path and goes willingly to his death, carrying in himself the suffering of all people in all times and places.
>> Join us on Monday, March 30, for the final Pax Christi USA Lenten prayer service for 2026. Click here to register.
Thank you for these words.
I am writing a letter to the editor of our local newspaper because I didn’t attend our area’s No Kings March today. The letter may not get published. At this weeks Pax Christi meeting I was reflecting on the fact that March 16 marked the 23rd anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death in Palestine. As you may know she was 23 and crushed to death by a bulldozer ( an American made Caterpillar) which was destroying houses in this town, presumably to make room for Israeli settlers. At the meeting, I wondered aloud what her last thoughts were. Jesus’s admonishment to his follower ( disciple ?) leaves me with more doubt than hope. At our meeting we briefly discussed “faith.” The Gospel of Palm Sunday reminded me of Rachel.
Thank you for your post.
I too missed No Kings except for a poster on my front door. However, I too thought about Rachel Corrie – it was the beginning of my understanding of the travesty that Palestinian people have endured at the hands of the perpetrators.