PALM SUNDAY A CRUCIAL DAY
Event leads into the Holy Week of Easter, and provides Ash Wednesday’s ashes
On Sunday, thousands of parishioners in churches across the city will hold palm branches in the air to celebrate Palm Sunday services which mark Jesus Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
It is the beginning of the Holy Week of Easter where the Passion story heads into His eventual crucifixion and resurrection.
“Palm Sunday really marks the entry of our Lord into Jerusalem for Passover. The significance of the palms themselves is it’s a sign that was used in ancient times to signify victory,” says Father Jerome Lavigne, pastor at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in northwest Calgary. “And so in hailing Him as the Messiah with the palms, people are saying this is it. This is the victory that we’ve been waiting for. Here is our new ruler so to speak.
“And the fact that Jesus rode in on a donkey into Jerusalem is actually very significant because if He would have chosen a horse, a horse is a symbol for war. The donkey is a symbol for peace. It also fulfils a prophecy spoken by the prophet Zechariah. It’s the fulfilment of the king of peace coming into the city of peace, Jerusalem, in triumph.”
Lavigne says the people were hailing him as the Messiah with the palms and they were hoping for a victory of a military nature. They were chanting ‘Hosannah’ which means ‘save now.’
“On the flip side, He is the ultimate power. On a worldly level, it is not fulfilled but in a heavenly way it is fulfilled,” says Lavigne, of Christ’s resurrection following His crucifixion.
Churches in today’s society use the palms during a procession from outside the sanctuary right to the altar for the liturgy on Palm Sunday. People in the pews hold the palms in the air in a re-enactment of the biblical story.
The palms also hold deep meaning for the future. They are eventually burned, crushed and used as ashes when people are marked with the sign of the cross on Ash Wednesday which begins the Lenten season the next year.
Roman Catholic Bishop Fred Henry, of the Calgary Diocese, says Palm Sunday is kind of a mixed day as it starts with the triumphant entry of Jesus “but once He gets there it’s quickly followed by, of course, the Passion.”
He says that in Jesus’ day the palms were like modern-day balloons or banners with people waving and chanting and celebrating the procession. Today, they are used as sacramentals with many people keeping them in their homes as a reminder of the Passion story.
“It’s a mixed kind of celebration. It involves the triumph — the popu- larity of Jesus — but then we quickly move into the real significance of what will be His ultimate popularity — His total self-surrender and trust in the love of the Father which He kind of takes our place where He becomes the suffering servant taking on the cross on which we should be occupying because of our sinfulness but He takes it on in our place,” says Henry.
“Of course, the triumph comes back with the resurrection which reminds us that nothing is able to destroy God’s love for us not even the murder of His beloved son.”
Irving Hexham, professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Calgary, says Palm Sunday services follow the story in the Bible.
“The significance is that it reminds one of how fickle people are because He’s given this great welcome and a week later He’s arrested and executed. It makes people reflect on the nature of life and how rapidly things can change,” says Hexham. “It also shows that the mass of the population appeared to be very favourable to Jesus and it was only a small group of people that was strongly opposed to him.
“It goes against the traditional way people expected the Messiah to come. They expected him to come with power as a king and He comes in a very humble way and it really upsets people’s expectations all around.”
The fact that Jesus rode in on a donkey into Jerusalem is actually very significant because … The donkey is a symbol for peace. FATHER JEROME LAVIGNE