“Palm Sunday exposes the limits of coercive power. Political systems built on rivalry and self-interest fail”
Palm Sunday falls on March 29, 2026. It opens Holy Week, the Church’s most sacred season. The faithful recall Christ’s humble entry into Jerusalem. That entry changed the world forever.
The crowds welcomed Jesus with palm branches and shouts. They cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” They hoped for a conquering king. They received something far greater instead.
The liturgy that day holds a dual character. It begins in joy and ends in sorrow. The palms honor Christ’s kingship. But that kingship leads not to a throne, only a cross.
Christ entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy of a peaceful Messiah. He brought no army, no weapons, no force. He brought only love and obedience to the Father.
The Passion Gospel is proclaimed during Mass. It confronts the faithful with betrayal and injustice. It also reveals perfect obedience to God’s will. Human praise quickly became cries for crucifixion.
This mirrors our world with painful accuracy. Public sentiment today shifts with frightening speed. Fear, anger, and misinformation drive people apart. The Gospel warns us against this moral instability.
Jerusalem in Christ’s time was a city under occupation. Religious divisions and political tensions ran deep. Many wanted a Messiah who would use force. Jesus refused to meet violence with violence.
That refusal speaks directly to the Middle East today. War continues to devastate communities and families. It hardens divisions and forecloses paths to peace. Christ’s example challenges every assumption about power.
He entered on a donkey, a sign of peace. This was deliberate and deeply prophetic. Lasting peace cannot come through domination or retaliation. His model insists on the dignity of every person.
Two popes have made this call urgent in our time. Pope Francis declared repeatedly that war is always a defeat. “War always marks the failure of peace,” he said. “It is always a defeat for humanity.” Those words remain a reproach to every government choosing bombs over dialogue.
Pope Leo XIV has echoed that cry with equal force. “We must not get used to war!” he exclaimed from St. Peter’s Square. In his first World Day of Peace message, he called for a peace that is “unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering.” He named it clearly: peace that comes from God, not from weapons.
In March 2026, addressing the war in Iran and the Middle East, Pope Leo prayed that the thunderous sound of bombs may cease, that weapons may fall silent, and that a space for dialogue may open up. He warned the conflict could spread further, engulfing more nations and peoples. This is the voice of the Church in our Holy Week.
This year carries yet another resonance. Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a special Year of St. Francis, marking the 800th anniversary of Francis of Assisi’s passing into heaven. The Poverello of Assisi lived in a world of religious wars and civic conflict. Yet he walked unarmed across enemy lines. He built bridges where the world raised walls.
A prayer for this jubilee year captures it precisely. Francis, unarmed, crossed the lines of war and misunderstanding. The prayer asks his intercession so that we may become peacemakers, unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ. Eight hundred years later, his witness loses none of its power.
Filipinos feel all of this in a particular way. We live in a region where war’s tremors reach our shores. The conflict in the Middle East raises fuel prices and threatens our workers abroad.
Fear spreads quietly but deeply, especially in Mindanao, where our people know too well what violence costs. We have buried our own. We have wept over our own ruins. That memory makes Palm Sunday not an abstraction but a wound still tender.
Palm Sunday exposes the limits of coercive power. Political systems built on rivalry and self-interest fail. Jesus demonstrated a radically different vision of authority. It is rooted in service, not dominance.
This Sunday is not only remembrance. It is commitment renewed in a broken world. The faithful are asked to carry their own palms. And to walk, always, in the path of peace.
Holy Week begins with a procession we join together.
We walk with Christ toward His suffering and death. We trust in the victory revealed on Easter morning. That trust must shape how we live now, in a world still bleeding from war.
(Note on author: Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is a professor of law, philosophy, politics and governance in several universities, including in Mindanao. He has been a human rights lawyer for 36 years. He is the managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy, founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation, and founding chair of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility and the Mindanao Center for Scholarships, Sports, and Spirituality.)
