I CAN’T think of Palm Sunday without returning to Wilfred Owen’s moving description of what it was like to be a soldier during World War One. “The sensations of going over the top” he wrote “are about as exhilarating as those dreams of falling over a precipice, when you see the rocks at the bottom surging up at you.”

It clearly took a huge amount of courage to get out of a trench and face a hail of enemy bullets.

We’ve just celebrated Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem and challenged the authorities to accept Him as their rightful King, knowing that He would be rejected and put to death because the authorities had very different agendas. They were aware that if they acknowledged Him as their Messiah it would mean drastic changes, both for the Temple and those who ran it. It would also result in a loss of prestige, power a lucrative income and a possible conflict with Rome. Jesus was under no illusions then. He knew it wouldn’t end well but went ahead and did it because He was convinced that God would raise Him to life again.

Many of His followers are suffering because of the courage of their convictions today too according to Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations. Speaking at an event in early March he is reported to have claimed that hundreds of millions of Christians suffer some form of repression because of their faith. “Almost 400 million Christians worldwide face persecution or violence, making them the most persecuted religious community in the world” he said. “This means that one in seven Christians is affected.” In fact, he believes nearly 5,000 were killed because of their faith in 2025 alone.

The archbishop issued a warning that even in some Western societies, freedom of religion is increasingly being challenged by legal and cultural pressures that are limiting the public expression of Christian beliefs. Pointing to information documented by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe, he said there were 2,211 recorded incidents in 2024 involving legal action against individuals for activities for such activities as silent prayer close to abortion clinics or publicly referencing biblical passages on social matters.

Having said all this, it’s worth remembering that we need to summon up the courage to change our convictions too - when the evidence demands - for if we don’t we run the risk of making the same kind of mistake that the distinguished astronomer and mathematician Simon Newcomb made when he predicted that "flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible". It didn’t take long for two Wrights to prove him wrong, just as it only took a few days for God to show us that Jesus really was, and is - the King of Kings - by raising Him to life again.