Homecomings

March 29, 2026 – Palm Sunday

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032926.cfm)

For us Filipinos, culturally there are three occasions in the year that we come home, get together, and spend quality time with our family:   Christmas, All Souls’ Day, and Holy Week. These are the homecoming moments where and when us Filipinos BE with each other, that is where and when we experience, encounter, and meet each other again as family and community which usually lead to renewal, deepening and strengthening of bonding and relationships among family & community as church. While Christmas is for & with our family and friends, and All Souls’ day is to & with our family and relatives remembering our beloved dead, Holy Week is particularly our time and space for & with our God.

Today, Palm Sunday marks the beginning of our Holy Week this year. Significantly holidays of this week is our church time and space to BE with our God. This week is specifically our God-time and God-space.

This week then is more than just our chance to be with God but more so, God’s chance to be with us. Meaning, this week is not only our time and space with God but more so, GOD’s time and space with us, His church. It is more like God must be first and foremost “Be with us” rather than “we must be with Him”. The center or focus of this week then is not ourselves but God. This week is not about us and ourselves but about HIM and His being with us now.

Thus, this is our opportunity to experience, encounter and meet God in His own terms and not on our own terms. The best attitude then is to let Him set the agenda, activities, schedules, and venue of this week. Meaning, to let Him takes the steering wheel. Allow Him to drive & lead your life this week. Let God be God, not be a god as we want or need Him to be.

And so, these days of Holy week become our homecoming moments with God through the paschal journey of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so that we might be at home again & anew with our God.

To do this and make the best of this week, some appropriate approaches might be in order as to how we prepare ourselves for this week.

First, RECALL. As I have said, this is not about us but about Him. So, once again be reminded, that is to put into mind – God’s story with Us which is the Jesus story. We are to call again and remember (to make it member or part of ourselves) what God did, does and is doing to us through the life and mission of Jesus Christ in the past year. So, time and space to “Recall, Remind, Remember” God’s story with us through Jesus rather our story with God.

Then, REFLECT. This is an invitation to mirror back or reflect back God’s story with and along our faith-story with Him now. In other words, “Manalamin”: to look and see our faith-life experiences from the point of view of God’s story and less from our own perspective, and to understand what happened to us lately with the lessons we realized from God’s story with us. Meaning, Be moved. Be disturbed. Be influenced. Be shaken. Be challenged. Be transformed by God’s story, presence, words, movements, plans, agenda and will for us – you and I, now and ahead.

And above all, RESPOND to what, when, how, when and where God is calling, inviting, and leading you now in whatever faith-life commitment you choose to be. Meaning, whether you are ordained, married, professed, or baptized Christian, DO be a BETTER version of Christian follower as you choose and committed to be.

Today we begin our Holy Week this year. Recall, Reflect, and Respond anew to what God did, does and is doing to You and Us now by being with Him, not in our own terms but in His own terms. May we, you and I, have a blessed and inspired homecoming week ahead with Him now & these days.

So May It Be. Amen.