With its mix of joy and sorrow, celebration of Christ’s kingship and anticipation of his death, Palm Sunday has always been a bittersweet start to Holy Week, but never more so than this year. The images of priests and bishops celebrating Mass in empty churches, reading St. Matthew’s Passion with only one person responding as the crowd, drove home the unusual nature of what we will experience over the coming week.
The responsorial psalm for today — Psalm 22 — foreshadows Christ’s passion, especially those final moments on the cross before he delivers up his spirit. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”