Beginning of Holy Week
Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week, and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.
Palm Sunday is known as such because the faithful will often receive palm fronds which they use to participate in the re-enactment of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem. In the Gospels, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a young donkey, and to the lavish praise of the townspeople who threw clothes, or possibly palms or small branches, in front of him as a sign of homage. This was a customary practice for people of great respect.
Palm branches are widely recognized symbol of peace and victory, hence their preferred use on Palm Sunday.
During Palm Sunday Mass, palms are distributed to parishioners who carry them in a ritual procession into church. The palms are blessed and many people will fashion them into small crosses or other items of personal devotion. These may be returned to the church, or kept for the year.
Because the palms are blessed, they may not be discarded as rubbish. Instead, they are appropriately gathered at the church and incinerated to create the ashes that will be used in the follow year's Ash Wednesday observance.
Our Mass begins in our large parlour with the blessing of palms. After blessing the palms the celebrant proclaims the account of Our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. In Year A the reading is from Matthew (21:1-11), in Year B from Mark (11:1-10) or John (12:12-16) and in Year C from Luke (19:28-40). In all of these accounts we hear how the crowd enthusiastically welcome Jesus yet we also know that before the week is over the crowds will be crying “Crucify him.”
After a short homily we process to the chapel. The priest prays the collect and the liturgy of the Word begins.
In our first reading the prophet Isaiah (50:4-7) we hear of the Suffering Servant “For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away. I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my bread; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.” In the second reading we hear the canticle of Paul in the letter to the Philippians (Ph 2:6-11) “Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality to God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.”
The Gospels for Year A (Matthew 26: 14-27: 66), Year B (Mark14:1-15:47) and Year C (Luke 22:14-23-56) all recount the Passion of Jesus. The reading of the account of the Passion on this Sunday can be traced through 1500 years of history. The Gospel is usually read as a “dialogue” Gospel with the part of Our Lord being read by the priest and the part of the narrator and others being taken by other readers.
In each account we hear of Jesus’ awareness and acceptance of his coming Passion. In Matthew’s account Jesus addresses his followers who would defend him with a sword “do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father who would promptly send more than twelve legions of angels to my defence? But then, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that say this is the way it must be?”
In Mark’s account Jesus defends the woman who pours the jar of nard over his head “She has done what she had in her power to do; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.”
In Luke’s account we hear the beautiful words of Jesus to the thief who defends him and asks to be remembered by him “Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”