As the Church enters Holy Week, Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier OFM has encouraged the people of God to remain focused on Jesus Christ and to renew their commitment to living the Gospel with sincerity and consistency.

In his Palm Sunday reflection, the Archbishop Emeritus of Durban Archdiocese and Apostolic Administrator of Eshowe Diocese described this stage of Lent as the “business end” of the season—a time when preparations for Easter intensify.

“As we get closer to what we might call the business end of the Lenton season, it is good for us to use those two words, business and end, as anchors for our reflection… What must not end, however, is our business of focusing on our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us during these most meaningful days,” he said.

Cardinal Napier noted that while daily schedules may become increasingly busy as Easter approaches, Christians are called to keep their attention fixed on the saving love of Christ revealed in the final days of His earthly life. The Church, he said, invites the people of God to contemplate the depth and intensity of that love through the events remembered during Holy Week, from the agony in the garden to the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

Reflecting on the meaning of Palm Sunday, Cardinal Napier highlighted the contrast between the joyful procession with palms and the solemn reading of the Passion. These two moments, he explained, reveal the weakness and inconsistency of the human heart—capable of praising Christ as King one moment and rejecting Him the next.

“We can’t be for Him and against Him at the same time,” Cardinal Napier said, urging the faithful to examine their relationship with the Lord and to avoid the contradiction of honoring Him on Palm Sunday only to deny Him through their actions later.

Concluding his reflection with a traditional Franciscan prayer, Cardinal Napier invited the people of God to adore Christ present in all churches throughout the world and to recognize that through His Holy Cross, humanity has been redeemed. He prayed that all the faithful may experience a faith-renewing Holy Week and a joyful celebration of Easter.