Today’s celebration of Palm Sunday ushers in the Catholic Church’s observance of the Holy Week that will culminate on Easter Sunday. The Palm Sunday (also sometimes called Passion Sunday) traditionally commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. Part of the liturgical celebration is the blessing of palms which, in some churches is done in a designated place outside the church. After the rite of blessing, the priest and other lay ministers process towards the Church followed by the faithful waving palm branches while singing hosannas or any appropriate hymns.
In the Philippines, some parishes even do elaborate celebration. At San Raphael Parish, where our community belongs, the traditional Palm Sunday procession before the first Mass in the morning include the parish priest riding a pony, followed by lay ministers and faithful singing appropriate songs for the occasion, while happily waving palm fronds. The procession will traverse several blocks of streets including the main road before it goes back to the church for the celebration of the Mass.
Filipinos have always been gregarious in their manifestation of the faith. Hence, one can’t imagine any liturgical celebration in the Philippines without singing, and depending if the bishop agrees, maybe a little dancing in some parts of the Mass.
This Holy Week we are all invited to ponder and profoundly reflect on the love of God for all of us and how we respond to that love.
Today’s liturgy shows that the people who sang hosanna to Jesus and welcomed him as their king, were the same people who will later ask for his neck—the very same people who will chillingly shout: “Crucify him!”
Though the Palm Sunday celebrates the glorious entry of our Lord Jesus into Jerusalem, it is also the start of his Passion which will culminate in his death on the cross on Good Friday. But his death ushers in the beginning of new life, his victory over sin and death. On Easter Sunday, he will rise again, and we will rise with him.
In his homily during Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father said precisely this—new life in Christ.
He said that “as Jesus walked towards Jerusalem,” the heavenly city, “we too walk up towards heaven.” He leads us towards “what is great, pure, he leads us towards the healthy air of the heights: towards the life according to the truth; towards courage that does not let itself be intimidated by the chattering of the dominant opinions; towards the patience that supports and sustains others."
The pope also said that even as we walked with Jesus he also carries and sustains us when the going for us becomes rough and we cannot do it alone.
As we enter the rigorous observance of Holy Week, may this truth remain etched in our hearts: that even as he suffer carrying the cross he didn’t deserve, God will gladly take even ours so as to lighten our load. And that’s so, because he loves so much.
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