This week, and for the next two weeks, we pause our reflections on the life of St. Francis to turn our attention to Jesus. Today is Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, when we reflect on the suffering that Jesus endured to save us from sin.   

Any trust Francis showed, and any trust we strive to show, is only a reflection of the trust Jesus lived as He prepared for His passion. Though He was God, the Second Person of the Trinity, He was also fully human.  Because of this, He experienced human emotions, including fear.  Trust is what overcomes fear. When we entrust ourselves to God’s plan, even when we do not understand it, fear begins to lose its power.  

While the entire trial and passion of Jesus is a story of trust, there is one instance that shows it most pointedly.  When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He fell on His knees and prayed that His Father would take away the cup of suffering He was about to drink. In His humanity, He didn’t want to suffer and die on the cross. But His final words are the most telling of all: “Not my will, but Yours be done.”  The Father’s plan included the Passion. The debt of sin could not be repaid by humanity alone; Only the God-Man could do it.   

We, too, face trials. Each of us carries a passion in our own lives. It is not sinful to ask God to remove suffering. But when He does not, we are called to trust that He remains with us, that our trials are not meaningless, and that united with Christ’s suffering, they bear fruit for the salvation of the world. 

This week, as we enter into the mystery of Christ’s Passion, let us place our fears in the Father’s hands. May we echo Jesus’ words in our own lives: “Not my will, but Yours be done.”