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 Pope Francis Celebrating Palm Sunday Scott 1674 (2018)  Jesus Enters Jerusalem Towards the Holy Year 2000 Scott 1081 (1998) Today is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning Holy Week, the most solemn period on the Christian calendar. Over the next week, we shall see Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, His cleansing of the temple, and, on Holy Thursday, the Last Supper and His betrayal and arrest. Good Friday follows, with His trial, passion, and crucifixion. Holy Week ends with His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Jesus Entering Jerusalem Unknown Artist (circa 1863) From Wikimedia Commons In the Public Domain Palm Sunday is a moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event described in each of the four canonical Gospels. In the Gospel of Matthew, it states that this happened so that the prophecy told in the Book of Zechariah might be fulfilled (Zechariah 9:9): See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.The Gospel of Luke (Luke 19:41-44) tells us that Jesus, as He approaches Jerusalem, looks at the city and weeps over it (an event known as Flevit super illam in Latin, or He wept over her), foretelling both His impending Passion and the suffering that awaits Jerusalem with its future destruction. As Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem, there is symbolism in the choice of the donkey. Eastern tradition has it that the donkey is an animal of peace, unlike the horse, which is the animal of war. The people celebrating Christ's arrival laid down their cloaks and small branches of palm trees in front of him. In most liturgical churches, Palm Sunday is celebrated by the blessing and distribution of palm branches (or the branches of other native trees), representing the palm branches which the crowd scattered in front of Christ as he rode into Jerusalem.  Holy Places in Palestine: Jerusalem Scott 1110 (1999) With the solemn Holy Week ahead, the VPS Website Team again invites you to check out the daily visits to the Lenten Station Churches of Rome. Click on the Page 2 tab to access each day’s Church (as well as all the Churches visited to this point). We hope this journey allows you to reflect on the coming events of Holy Week and the arrival of Easter next Sunday. REFERENCES: |
