Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of the Lenten
Season, 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 branches which they use to participate in the
reenactment 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 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. The use of a
donkey instead of a horse is highly symbolic, it represents the humble arrival
of someone in peace, as opposed to arriving on a steed in war. A week later, Christ would rise from the dead
on the first Easter.
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. The extra
palm will be burned to create ashes for next year’s Ash Wednesday celebration. The colors of the Mass on Palm Sunday are red
and white, symbolizing the redemption in blood that Christ paid for the world.
As we begin this holiest week of the Church year
let us take some time to pray, reflect and be present to each of the days of
Holy Week.
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