Sunday, March 29, 2026 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
I want to assure you that I am not getting my liturgical seasons confused, but my mind has turned to the Advent Season and an old liturgical song sung by The Dameans. The song is entitled Come, O Lord, And Set Us Free. A portion of the song goes as follows:
Come, O Lord, and set us free. Bring your people peace. Come, O Lord, and set us free, Come, Lord Jesus, come! Then shall the wolf and the lamb be friends, the kid and leopard play. Peacefully calf and lion browse with each other that day! From near and far they’ll seek him out, His dwelling shall be filled. In all the earth no harm or pain when they know of His will.
This December hymn, sung during the dark cold days at the end of the year ring loudly in me now as I/we continue to witness war, destruction, and death across our planet. Global disturbances have always existed but over the past few years they have seemed to increase, and the carnage is in full view. Seeing missiles and drones crashing into apartment buildings and high-rise buildings is shocking. Even more disturbing is seeing the people who survive these attacks in distress with nowhere to turn with limited resources of sparce food and clean drinking water. They live in tents or other overcrowded settings. In viewing these, I think, “Is this what we have become; where has constructive diplomacy and reasoning gone?”
So, this leads to the question of how do we respond and react. There are civil/social actions of writing our elected representatives and promoting actions for a peaceful world. We can attend rallies to make our voices heard. We can lead by the example, being kind and respectful to one another. But the most important action is prayer. Prayer is that spiritual action believing that God can move hearts to bring about change. And secondly, prayer offers us inner peace and an intimate relationship with God allowing us to move forward in hope. Please, never discount the value of prayer for Divine Intervention and for the inner peace and reassurance it offers us.
As we enter into this most holy week of the liturgical year, remembering and celebrating the Paschal Mystery—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, let us believe that our prayer makes a difference and it can bring life from death and an inner consolation to us all.