“Hosanna! … Hosanna in the highest … Like the crowds who acclaimed Jesus in Jerusalem, let us go forth in peace.” These are the words we hear on Passion Sunday, marking the end of our Lenten journey, the beginning of our pilgrimage into Jerusalem.
Palm Sunday, in the Christian tradition, is the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is associated in many churches with the blessing and procession of palms.
During the Middle Ages the ceremony for the blessing of the palms was elaborate; the procession began in one church, went to a church in which the palms were blessed, and returned to the church in which the procession had originated for the singing of the liturgy. After reforms of the Catholic Church liturgies in 1955 and 1969, the ceremonies were somewhat simplified in order to emphasize the suffering and death of Christ.
Now officially called Passion Sunday, the liturgy begins with the blessing and procession of palms, but prime attention is given to a lengthy reading of the Passion, with parts taken by the priest, lectors, and the congregation. The palms are often taken home by the members of the congregation to serve as Sacramentals (sacred signs of the sacraments), reminding them of their faith; some of them are burned the following year to serve as the ashes which will be put on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday.
Easter is the principal festival of the Christian Church, which celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. The earliest recorded observance of an Easter celebration comes from the 2nd century, though commemoration of Jesus's Resurrection probably occurred earlier.
There is widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (“dawn”) and became eostarum in Old High German, the precursor of the modern German and English term. The Latin and Greek Pascha (“Passover”) provides the root for Paques, the French word for Easter.
Fixing the date on which the Resurrection of Jesus was to be observed and celebrated triggered a major controversy in early Christianity in which an Eastern and a Western position can be distinguished.
The dispute, known as the Paschal controversies, was not definitively resolved until the 8th century. In Asia Minor, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that the Jews celebrated the Passover offering - that is, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan (see the Jewish calendar). The Resurrection, then, was observed two days later, on 16 Nisan, regardless of the day of the week.
In the West the Resurrection of Jesus was celebrated on the first day of the week, Sunday, when Jesus has risen from the dead. Consequently, Easter was always celebrated on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Increasingly, the churches opted for the Sunday celebration, and the Quartodecimians (“14th day proponents”) remained a minority.
The Council of Nicaea in 325 decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox March 21st. Easter, therefore, can fall on any Sunday between March 22nd and April 25th. This is the week leading up the Easter, Jesus’ last week on Earth. Today we celebrate Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem on a donkey to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. Crowds of people welcomed Jesus by waving palm branches or by laying them on his path, joyfully shouting “Hosanna!” Palm Sunday is both a happy and sad day for Christians. We feel happy because we are praising Jesus, but also sad because we know it was only one week later that Jesus died. However, we also know the Resurrection followed only three days later. How do we welcome Jesus today? With joy? With sadness? With a firm decision to follow him?
Sincerely,
Deacon Ed
