Palm Sunday mirrors this jarring experience. The day begins with joyful hosannas, yet, in the liturgy, we quickly find ourselves plunged into Christ’s Passion. We might find ourselves wondering—did we miss something? How did we go from waving palms to witnessing the crucifixion so suddenly?

This is the unsettling truth of human nature: our hearts are fickle. How quickly our cries of praise become shouts of condemnation. And how often we find ourselves caught between devotion and doubt, fidelity and failure. This week, how will we respond to the invitation to follow Christ on the Way of the Cross, renewing our efforts to stay faithful to him to the very end?

_{^{Image Credit: Philip Julian Leighton Rickey (American, b. 1959), Life of Christ/Cycle of Life, 2017, Colmnar basalt columns placed along a 420 ft pathway. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame. Anonymous Fund and the Humana Foundation Endowment in memory of Mary Ellen Sullivan-Rickey, 2018.039}}