PALM SUNDAY PROCESSION AND ST MATTHEW’S PASSION - 28th MARCH

 PALM SUNDAY

PROCESSION AND ST MATTHEW’S PASSION
28th MARCH






Today is a great and holy day, as the liturgy starts with celebrating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, beginning with the blessing of palms, then a procession carrying the palms – starting with St Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 21.1-9), where Jesus entered into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, reflecting His humility in accordance with the prophesies:
“Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell ye the daughter of Sion: Behold thy King cometh to thee, meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke.”
In the traditional rite, when the procession leaves the church, the door is closed. The church represents Christ. Benedict XVI described it in a homily for Palm Sunday in 2007 thus:
“In the old liturgy for Palm Sunday, the priest, arriving in front of the church, would knock loudly with the shaft of the processional cross on the door that was still closed; thereupon, it would be opened. This was a beautiful image of the mystery of Jesus Christ Himself who, with the wood of His Cross, with the power of His love that is given, knocked from the side of the world at God’s door; on the side of a world that was not able to find access to God. With His Cross, Jesus opened God’s door, the door between God and men. Now it is open.”
The Mass then changes from a time of joy, to solemn contemplation of Christ’s passion as the commencement of Holy Week.
The Tract of the Mass is Psalm 21.2-9:
O God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
…
But I am a worm and no man; the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn; they have spoken with the lips and wagged the head. He hoped in the Lord, let Him deliver Him; let Him save Him seeing that He delighteth in Him.
But they have looked and stared upon me; they parted my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture they cast lots.
…Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come; and the heavens shall show forth His justice. To a people that shall be born, which the Lord hath made.
St Matthew’s Passion (Matt 26.36-75. 1-66) relates the story of Christ’s passion and death on the Cross, leading us into the contemplation of Holy Week.
The Epistle – St Paul to the Philippians 2.5-11 provides:
“Brethren, let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking a form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men and in habit found as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in glory of God the Father.”

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