May the Blessed peace of Christ crucified be with you and your whole family!
During the Holy Week, the Church accentuates a very essential doctrine of our faith, which is the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The history of our salvation leads up to and culminates on the events that transpired during the Holy Week some two thousand years ago.
Let us then follow the steps of Jesus during his last days on earth. I would like to construct a day-by-day journal of Jesus’ final week for you. On this journal, I will use the accounts presented to us by the four Gospels. Note that Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote their gospels in a rather more historical sequence. St. John’s Gospel is focus more on the theological sequence.
Read the chronology as a likely scenario of the last week of Jesus. We need to use a little imagination and we bring ourselves back to Jerusalem two thousand years ago:
Days leading to Palm Sunday: 
Before entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Gospels tell us that Jesus has been staying in Bethany. Bethany is a suburb of Jerusalem about two miles south-east of Jerusalem. It is a place of the “wretchedly poor”. While Jerusalem is a place of prosperity, Bethany is a place of poverty. It was a favorite resort of our Lord, as it was the home of his three dearest friends, the siblings Lazarus, Martha and Mary.
The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead a day before he entered Jerusalem. Even before raising Lazarus, Jesus was already well known and has gained many interests from the people. His popularity among the Jews rose steeply when he brought Lazarus back to life.  The Jews in Jerusalem are now excited and anxious to see Jesus.
On that same day, a day before entry to Jerusalem, the other three Gospels tell us that that Jesus was at the Mount of Olives preparing for his entrance. Mount of Olives is near Bethany and 2 miles east of Jerusalem. It has been used as a Jewish Cemetery for over 3,000 years now. It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. Jesus was there to pray.
Palm Sunday:
In the morning of that Sunday, Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead to a nearby village to fetch a donkey and a colt. Jesus told them that if asked, to say that the Lord will need them. Jesus rode on the Donkey and the Colt one after the other. The Donkey represents the Jews under the burden of the law and the Colt, the untamed gentiles.
As Jesus approaches the city of Jerusalem, He wept. Jesus’ tears were for the city. The city is in sin and suffering will soon befall.
Crowds were already gathered inside the walls of Jerusalem anticipating the entry of Jesus. They laid their cloaks and blankets on the road. They wave green branches and palms, shouting Hosanna to the Son of David! They have so much happiness and hope for this Savior.
Some people who came were also curious to see Lazarus, whom Jesus rose from the dead. Remember that Jesus’ popularity grew even more after raising Lazarus from the dead. They want to see with their own eyes that indeed he is back to life.
Much of that Sunday was spent greeting and talking with people. According to Mark 11:11, Jesus returned to Bethany that evening to retire.
Holy Monday:
The following day, Jesus returned to Jerusalem. He went to the temple and he was angry upon seeing what the people were doing to his Father’s house. They turned the house of prayer into a marketplace. All sorts of vendors and money changers populate the temple. Thieves and robbers mix in with the crowds looking for victims. Religious leaders were defrauding and selling their “prayers”. In anger, Jesus told the leaders: “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.”
Jesus then began “driving  out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.”
Later on that same day, “the blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.
This is now the start of Jesus becoming unpopular to the chief priests and to the people who were profiting from businesses in the temple. They are now starting to talk among themselves on how they can eliminate Jesus. They wanted to kill Lazarus first, because Lazarus’ being raised from the dead has made Jesus very popular.
That night of the Holy Monday, Jesus returned to Bethany to rest….  Stay tuned tomorrow for the events that transpired on Holy Tuesday.
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At 7pm tonight, April 6, the Bishop and the priests of the Diocese of Trenton will simultaneously celebrate Mass privately to renew our priestly commitment. The renewal is traditionally done during the Chrism Mass. Please pray for the Bishop and the presbyterate of the Diocese of Trenton.
Please join me tomorrow at 9,30am for a livestream Holy Tuesday Mass.
God Loves You.