St. Philip Catholic Church: So as we are all working in, something that reminds me of the celebration that we are celebrating the Palm Sunday, I say if you know that we coming into the Kingdom of God, that heaven is open, where everyone is coming in, pouring in, the scripture says, from the east to south, the west, from every direction, people will come into the Kingdom of God. So that's how I felt, looking at you coming in. It's a joyful celebration because palms are used for kings and messiahs, right? In the past time the palms are used to give glory and honor to the king. So Jesus is the king of kings. So when the Jews are celebrating Hosanna and Messiah, what a fitting thing to do. And we do the same thing, proclaiming God as his victory, triumphance and peace coming into his city. So at this moment I would like to do a small exercise because as we come into the kingdom of God, we belong to the kingdom. So I want you to look at your pews. see there, okay, before I address all of you sitting in the back, raise your hand if you are needing a seat. If you are standing, fine. If you would like to stand the whole mass, I'm not gonna force you, but if you would like to sit, raise your hand. Okay. I see that now for those who are sitting, raise your hand if you have like, a space that is available to you. There we go. Now you can go those who are standing. Raise your hand if you can fit two, three, four. Deacon, we're not included, okay? So those who would like to have a seat, please look for that. They are going to raise their hand. If you would like to have a seat, please come and take your space. We are one family. Are you okay? All those who are standing, you're fine with standing? Okay, fine. Thank you. the same time this Palm Sunday, even though it's a joyful celebration, the glorification and the joyful celebration also ⁓ with the suffering of Jesus Christ. If you look at the reading outside, we read those who are proclaiming Hosanna, the Messiah, blessed is he who comes in the glory of the name of the Lord, ⁓ many of those who proclaiming this joyful proclamation, ⁓ were turned ⁓ away. ⁓ on Good Friday, that the same people who said, crucify him, crucify him. And then you know like, the branches that you are holding, those are being blessed, take that yaw home, put it in your altar, put it in the sacred images where you put, and whenever you see that, let yourself be reminded that I am to glorify God, to praise God, to honor God with my life, not just on Palm Sunday waving the branches, but with my life, I'm to glorify God and I am to say Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. That phrase, that proclamation, that joyful proclamation must be fulfilled in my life. That's why the Palm Sunday, the people who are joyfully proclaiming, we are called with a cross to proclaim and put Jesus as king in our life, the way we live our life. We must honor and joyful proclamation all the days of our life. But one thing that we are not to do, like the crowd, is to stop proclaiming Jesus as King and Messiah when suffering comes into our life. The people who proclaim Hosanna, when Jesus go into the suffering, his passion and his suffering, they love Jesus, including all his apostles. We're not to be like those crowd. We are to continue to follow Him as His disciple when suffering and passion come into our life. When we do that, God will bring into His final glorification. The proclamation, the joyful proclamation, Hosanna in the highest is awesome and great, but rather it is even more glorious and more awesome on the day of the resurrection. Let our joyful celebration today, may we persevere and enter this holy week, this Palm Sunday officially opened to the holy week. May we still continue to follow Jesus. to his passion, to his suffering. And we are not to be like all those crowd who laugh Jesus, at his passion and suffering, crucifixion and the dead. But we need to continue to as a disciple of Jesus, even when suffering and pain come into our life, because Jesus will bring you to your resurrection. Jesus will give you to your pain, to your suffering, Jesus will give you salvation. May we follow, pick up our own cross. Please carry on, put on your shoulder and follow Jesus. Many of us, including me, many times we drag our cross. It's more deadly. You know, ⁓ can you imagine that if you're dragging the cross and there's a storm and talk, it's gonna pull you back. Don't drag your cross, pick it up. and follow Jesus until the passion and the crucifixion. Let us not leave Jesus alone. Let us follow Him to the passion, the crucifixion and to the tomb. Then we will also participate in His resurrection and glorification and triumphant. And one more thing is also, when you keep the palms in your houses, please keep them. And next year when we have Ash Wednesday, we will ask you to bring it back. So it's a beautiful thing. We take it out and we will bring it back and we would burn it and use it for Ash Wednesday as an ash that we will use it.