Do This in Memory of Me: Hosanna!

By: Laura Worhacz

“He came to earth to manifest His goodness, Let us dwell on it at length when we are at His feet.” - Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Volume 7, page 120)
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Dearest Eucharistic Family,

Tomorrow is Passion Sunday. Let’s take a moment to enter deeply into Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. At every celebration of the Eucharist we proclaim, “Hosanna… blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9). During this moment in our Liturgy, for years I have received a grace to close my eyes and see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an animal, riding into His Passion and Death. Palms waving over Jesus, those present are making a pathway to His Crucifixion. People crying out, begging from the depths of their being to find hope, trust, and the love of God. Holy Week is before us; Jesus weeps, cries out to Our Father, sweats blood. He agonizes looking to see if anyone is awake. He is scourged MERCILESSLY, crowned with thorns, carries the Cross, and dies for the sanctification of our lives. We are called to be made HOLY, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…” Now let’s take a moment to enter into our own passion with Jesus.

We are in darkness now, a time in history when the unknown is before us, unprecedented, with the threat of the Corona-virus in our midst. Anxiety and fear have entered so many people’s hearts. Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing it would bring death. Jesus united to Heaven’s love and went through His Passion with His eyes fixed on His Father.  Our prayer will keep us affixed to the security of God’s love. As our faith rises through the Cross, let us imagine ourselves standing next to Our Lady and Saint John as the blood and water pour out of our Savior. The RESURRECTION is with us now and forever. The Eucharist is the FLESH of the Son of God and we are His MYSTICAL BODY. As we look at our loved ones and all those whom we encounter, we are in the Eucharist. Our longing to receive the Sacramental species will be nourished by keeping our senses awake through our love for each other. The heart wells up with intense longing to be together again in our Churches. The Holy Spirit pours out the life-giving water we have received at our baptism as we die and rise in God’s will for our eternal salvation.

The deaths and suffering we are witnessing in all of humanity due to the Covid-19 virus are beyond our comprehension and the mystery is in the unknown. It is through our communion of love that we carry the Cross with the joy of the Gospel. A joy that lives in the HOPE of those who BELIEVE that we are blessed to come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, we adore you O Christ and we Praise You, for by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world!

“What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?” (John 11:45-56)

“I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.” (Ezekiel: 37:21-28)