Palm Sunday – March 28, 2021
You are not your own; you were bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
We who are baptized are free children of God. Christ Himself, in His messianic role, freed us from the captivity of sin and death. But our freedom was not free. It came at a great price: the death of God Himself. His death freed us from Satan’s grasp, who seeks to enslave us. His death opened the gates to everlasting life to us.
In morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, the responsory during Lent is, “God himself will set me free from the hunter’s snare.” This is based on this phrase from Psalm 124: “We have escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken, and we have escaped!” (v. 7). Satan is the fowler; we are his prey. But God Himself has set us free from his snare: his traps and lies. “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side” (Psalm 124:1), we would surely be left in Satan’s clutches.
Our freedom from Satan’s captivity that began at the Fall of Man cost the life of our Lord. The very King of the Universe had to die to set us free: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Christ purchased us, His Church, with His own precious blood (c.f. Acts 20:28). His blood, our ransom price, set us free.
As we enter into Holy Week, keep the blood of Christ in your hearts and minds. It is our ransom that was poured out for us. When you celebrate Mass, remember that Christ’s gave up His Body and Blood for you before He offered it back to you as heavenly nourishment (c.f. Luke 22:19-20). Christ Himself is the price of your freedom and also your everlasting reward.
Jesus, my King, I look at You on the throne of Your cross, laden with a crown of thorns, and I am in grief. I see You pierced and striped and killed for my offenses and I am ashamed of my sin. You literally went to hell for us (Apostles’ Creed), and I am astonished by Your love and mercy. Walk with me this Holy Week, or rather, let me walk beside You on Your Way of the Cross.