This year’s Palm Sunday: Renewed hopes for the attainment of peace

This Sunday stands out as special in the Church Calendar. The Catholic Church and other churches that follow the Gregorian Calendar are celebrating the glorious Feast of Easter, while in Jordan, following the Julian Calendar, we celebrate Palm Sunday. This creates a religious and a national scene that reflects the unique character of this great and holy country, which unified the celebration of feasts for more than 50 years, whereby believers from different Churches have walked together on one path towards the Holy Week.

In Jerusalem, where geography encapsulates the meaning of faith, Easter is being celebrated this year in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with a limited number of people under exceptional circumstances. Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed deep sorrow after being banned last week from entering the church to conduct Palm Sunday rites. However, notable international pressures contributed to opening the Church for conducting religious rites--albeit in a limited capacity—in an indication of the importance of these holy sites not only religiously, but rather culturally and humanly on a global level. The images  emerging from there have not been encouraging, especially as the doors of Al-Aqsa Mosque also remain closed, and the situation is worrying. Yet, the glorious Feast of Easter is  the feast of hope par excellence despite the prevailing wounds.

In this context, Palm Sunday this year takes on two basic dimensions. Firstly: Lord Jesus Christ’s heads to Jerusalem, entering it on a journey ascending towards Mount Golgotha, fully aware that He fulfills His redemptive mission. This ascension was not easy; it was a path filled with challenges, ending at the Cross and crowned by the Resurrection. It is a call for every person today--amid pressures and crises--not to surrender but to rise, namely rising in values, in faith, and in the ability to persevere no matter what.

Secondly: Peace. Christ does not enter the city as a conqueror using force of arms, but rather as a humble king bearing a message of peace that our world needs nowadays more than ever. In a region burdened by conflict, this scene becomes an exigent call to restore the values of humility and dialogue, as well as to seriously seek ways to end violence and to build a more stable future.

On Palm Sunday, Christians raise and wave olive branches as a sign that they are people of peace, justice, and dialogue. Religion has never been a call to glorify war or to manipulate sacred texts so as to serve political agendas and limited interests, as regrettably happens nowadays. This is what led Pope Leo, in his first Palm Sunday, to declare: “The King of Peace is a God who rejects war; no one can invoke His name to justify it. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

From Jordan, which stands as a model of common living and respect for religious rites, the call for peace is renewed. It is important to commend the efforts led by His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein Ibn Abdullah II in reducing tensions and promoting efforts for the attainment of just political solutions that preserve human dignity and protect holy sites. A tribute is also conveyed to the security apparatuses that are present throughout this Holy Week at the gates of churches, sharing in the joy of worshippers during the feast.

Best wishes are conveyed for a blessed feast to those celebrating the Sunday of the Glorious Feast of the Resurrection or Palm Sunday.  Both Sundays are not merely a religious commemoration, but rather a living message calling on us to rise above our wounds and to make peace despite all challenges.