1. This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. ²Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God’s Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. ³For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. ⁴A slain Christ has no meaning. ⁵But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God’s forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole.

2. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. ²Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. ³This week we celebrate life, not death. ⁴And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. ⁵Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the “gift” of fear. ⁶You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. ⁷Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. ⁸This Easter I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. ⁹We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. ¹⁰Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine.

3. A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken. ²He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection, already given him. ³Let him not wander into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. ⁴Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. ⁵Hold him not back with thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. ⁶But let the whiteness of your shining gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection.

4. Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end. ²If you see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow-white petals of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your brother’s face and recognize it. ³I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. ⁴Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. ⁵In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to you and yet your ancient Friend, lies his release and your redemption with him. ⁶The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. ⁷Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness along with me. ⁸For Easter is the time of your salvation, along with mine.