Palm Sunday
Massimo Palombella
Today’s celebration ushers us into Holy Week, the heart of the entire Liturgical Year.
This particular Liturgy solemnly begins by acclaiming the Lord as He enters Jerusalem but, slowly, we are led into His passion and death, into the betrayal of that crowd that a few days later replaces the joyful and triumphant acclamation ‘Hosanna’ with the angry shout ‘crucify Him’.
So many characters are sculpted today in the Passion reading, and the same will happen on Good Friday. In the betrayals, in not taking responsibility, in carrying the cross with Jesus, there is a reality that unites Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the famous Gradual where, whatever our attitude in the Lord’s Passion, we are gently reminded that He, for each one of us, became obedient to the point of death and death on a cross.
The commemoration of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem begins with the antiphon in VII, which reads:
‘Hosanna filio David:
benedictous qui venit in nomine Domini.
Rex Israel: Hosanna in excelsis.”
(Hosanna to the Son of David, the King of Israel.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest)
The attached music, in Gregorian Chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation is by the Chœur grégorien de Paris and can be found on YouTube.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
