Hosanna!

This weekend, Holy Week begins with the Sunday of Lord’s triumphal entry into Jersusalem – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

Although Good Friday is coming – the Passion and Death are coming – for the moment, this moment, joy resounds as our King arrives in His city.

In most parishes throughout the world, the principal Mass is normally celebrated by a procession of the people into the church, waving palm branches. This year, of course, these processions are canceled by order of Rome, and no one will hear the first Gospel reading.

When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem
and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them here to me.
And if anyone should say anything to you, reply,
‘The master has need of them.’
Then he will send them at once.”
This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them,
and he sat upon them.
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees
and strewed them on the road.
The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
And when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”
And the crowds replied,
“This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

(Matthew 21:1-1: Cycle A Reading at the Procession with Palms)

But the joy of the Messiah’s arrival in Jerusalem is short-lived. The next reading (and this year, the first heard) is from the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 50:4-7): the third song of the suffering servant. In this prophecy we hear the confusion, but also the confidence, of the man beaten and abused on account of his witness, but who knows that God stands with him.

The Responsorial Psalm is the heartbreaking Psalm 22, a prophecy of the Passion and Crucifixion, with the response, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

A same note of devastation followed by hope comes to us in the form of the Epistle, which is worth quoting in full. No excerpt can really do it justice, for it is the very summation of the mystery of the Incarnation:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:6-11)

And then. And then, we come to the Passion. This year, we hear Matthew’s version (Matthew 26:14-27:66). The Missal has the narrative split into three voices, plus the crowd. There is something eerie and horrible about the congregation, taking the part of the crowd, shouting “Crucify him!” It really does put you in that time and that place.

I encourage all of you to attend a virtual Mass on Palm Sunday.

Catholics, of course, should be doing this anyway, but to my non-Catholic Christian friends, I offer this plea: please, please try to view these services of Holy Week. There is something about living through these events by participating in these liturgies that can’t be summed up in mere words.

It will bring you closer to Christ by placing you, just for a moment, deep within the events of our Salvation history.

The great Triduum liturgy begins on Holy Thursday, continues through Good Friday, and reaches its triumphant climax at the Easter Vigil.

In addition to the resources I’ve posted here and here, NLM is collecting a list of live-streaming Masses here.