Palm Sunday has for centuries served to commemorate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, with the welcoming party joyfully placing palm branches in his path and waving them in the air. So the question can be asked. Why palm branches? Palm branches have been a part of Christian worship since ancient times. In those times they symbolised goodness and victory and were often replicated on coins and important buildings. Solomon even had palm branches carved into the walls and doors of the temple. Today, Christianity uses the palm branches as a sign of victory over the flesh and the world according to Psalm 91:13. The practice began in the fourth century and in those early years the procession began on the Mount of the Ascension and ended up in the Church of the Holy Cross, but by the ninth century the procession would begin in each church with the blessing of the palms, with the congregation then moving outside the church for some short distance, as is done locally, and returns to the church for the reading of the passion as written in Matthew's Gospel. "Palm Sunday makes heavy emotional demands on Catholics," wrote Fr Martin Pable OFM. "One minute we are singing joyful hosannas to Christ and the next minutes we are listening to the tragic story of His passion and death. All of a sudden we are in the hostile crowd shouting 'crucify Him'!"
In this archdiocese, the practice is pretty much the same-blessing of the palms, distribution, a short procession, usually around the church's compound and back inside for the reading of the Passion. In years gone by churches would make the palm fronds into crosses or bows and rosettes. Today in most of our churches that practice is no longer in vogue and the faithful just receive one or two palm fronds, which they hold aloft during the reading of the Passion. The palms are secured during the week by people going deep into the forests, cutting them and bringing them back to their various churches. However, since times have changed the collection of the palm branches have in some areas become commercialised, with churches having to pay for their quota of palms from many an intrepid bushman. After Holy Mass the blessed palms are taken home and placed in some prominent place in the house, usually chapelles (home altars), where they remain until they are dried up until they are replaced by next year's palms. In reality the dried palms should be taken back to the church to be burnt and the ashes used on the following Ash Wednesday, but in our modern day world, this hardly happens anymore, so each church ensures that blessed palms are kept for this purpose.
Pope John Paul II, celebrating the Palm Sunday liturgy on the occasion of the 11th World Youth Day (WYD) on March 31, 1996, described Palm Sunday as "a solemn gateway as it were, leading to Holy Week. Looking at this day from the standpoint of liturgical spirituality, we can consider it as somehow present in every Eucharistic celebration. "Just as in its time it was the threshold of the events of Christ's paschal week," continued the late Pope, "so it continues as the threshold of the Eucharistic mystery, indeed, the very threshold of the liturgy. The moment we cross this threshold, we approach the centre of the Mysterium fide. "This Mysterium is 'always and everywhere' celebrated and accomplished by Christ Himself, through the service of the priest, minister of the Eucharist. Christ, the eternal high priest, arrives in Jerusalem to complete his one sacrifice, the sacrifice of the New Covenant: First as a sacrament at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday; then as a redeeming reality on Calvary," added the late Pontiff. Fr Pable puts the entire scenario into context when he wrote: "We need to come to our churches today and begin Holy Week in the right spirit-humbly, because we know how fickle we are, but also with confidence, because we believe that Jesus won forgiveness of our sins by His sacrifice on the cross. Those outstretched arms remind us: He accepts us and loves us as we are. And that gives us the courage to keep following Him."
VERNON KHELAWAN is the Media Relations Officer of Catholic Media Services Limited (CAMSEL). He was a former senior editor at the Guardian. CAMSEL is the communications arm of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain.
