With the celebration of Passion (Palm) Sunday, the Church enters into the holiest week of the entire year. In her liturgical celebrations, the Church invites us to walk with Christ and to relive the saving events that have brought us new life in Him. We might ask, though, since these events took place nearly two thousand years ago, how can we, today, enter into Christ’s passion, death and resurrection? Isn’t there a danger that all of us can assume the role of mere spectators without deeply entering into the Paschal Mystery of Jesus?

The answer is yes; if we are not careful, we can simply sit back on the sidelines, as it were, and let events unfold before us without participating in them. For this reason, the Church, during Holy Week, challenges us to live more intensely our union with the Lord as He progresses toward Calvary and the glory of Easter.

To make this week holy, we need simply to fulfill Christ’s three commands in this week’s account of the Passion. At the moment of betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says to His apostle, "Put your sword back into its sheath." To participate worthily in the Passion of Jesus Christ means that we seek to put an end to all the aggression, anger, antagonism, resentment and hostility that can come to dominate our lives. Christians do not live by impulse, by violence or by the whim of an egotistical will. To do so is to betray the truth of the Gospel. Rather, we are called to live by faith.

Msgr. Luigi Giussani, the founder of the Catholic organization Communion and Liberation, explains that betrayal is the exact opposite of profession. He writes, "‘Profession’ means to affirm before the world and ‘betrayal’ means to deny before the world." To realize the rich graces of Holy Week means living to the fullest the Profession of Faith that we make at Mass this Passion Sunday.

As much as we are horrified by the shouts of "Let him be crucified!" during the recitation of the Passion at Mass, the sinful actions that we have condoned in our lives in fact sanction that death sentence. Professing faith means owning up to our responsibility in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. For only the cross of Christ will save us from ourselves. The Byzantine Divine Liturgy exclaims, "Come, O faithful, let us adore the life-giving cross of Christ, the King of glory, for when he extended his arms on it of his own free will, he restored to us the original bliss. Come, O faithful, let us adore the cross through which we have been made worthy to crush the devil’s head."

Furthermore, in the garden Jesus commands His disciples, "Watch and pray." We must be watchful of anything that alienates us from God—not only gross and evil things, but even seemingly negligible indulgences that can sneak up on us as easily and innocently as sleep. Holiness requires remaining vigilant to anything that compromises our active personal union with Jesus Christ. We rely on prayer to intensify that communion and to fortify us against moments of temptation and deception. The branches of palm that we carry home to place on our crucifixes and sacred images remind and encourage us to pray with ever-deeper devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. As we see the palms that signify Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we are also reminded to remain watchful as we participate in the agony of Gethsemane.