Palm Sunday

Just as Ash Wednesday is really not focused on ashes but rather on the call to conversion, so the focus of Palm Sunday is not on palms but on a procession. The procession is not simply a dramatic reenactment of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem but a prayerful meditation on who we are as Church.

Our church’s liturgical rituals have three dimensions. They recall past events, celebrate the present reality of grace, and look to a future fulfillment. Thus, on Palm Sunday, we recall Christ’s entry into Jerusalem where he will undergo his passion and death and be raised from the death as Lord and Christ.

Our procession recalls that event, but does more than that. Our walking together reminds us that we are a pilgrim people (a term used repeatedly in the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church). We follow the cross which is the sign of our life in Christ, the cross by which we have been claimed for Christ in our baptism. We follow the cross because which is the sign of Christ’s self-giving which we are called to imitate. We carry palms in our hands because they are signs of Christ’s promise of victory over sin and death. We follow the cross, bearing palms, and enter the church, the symbol of the heavenly city where all of God’s holy ones are gathered.

Many years ago, I put together a meditation on Palm Sunday. In it we recalled many occasions when people walked in search of justice, the peasants who marched on Versailles, those who marched on the Czar’s palace, those who walked in Selma, those who marched on Washington. They were people who had a dream. Our walk through life is not energized by a dream, but by a promise, a promise made by one whose word is true because he is the Word of Truth.

While the earlier Sacramentary directed: “The procession to the church where Mss will be celebrated then begins,.” the new Sacramentary directs: “The procession to the church where Mass will be celebrated sets off in the usual way.” This is somewhat strange because the procession is not formed in the usual way.

Most church processions are formed on the basis of status or rank. Thus, the presider comes at the end of the procession, unless there is a bishop presiding, or another person who outranks the presider.

However, on Palm Sunday the procession does not form on the basis of rank. Rather, the presider, acting in the person of Christ, leads the church. The presider walks ahead of us to remind us that Christ has gone before us. He knows the troubles of our lives because he has endured them himself. We have a high priest who was tested in everyway that we are, but without sin.

Palm Sunday is not about palms but about who we are and who is our source of hope.