Katekismo Corner: On the Holy Week: Palm Sunday of The Passion of the Lord and the Paschal Triduum

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On the Holy Week: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and the Paschal Triduum

Have you noticed that it always is a full moon during the Holy Week? It is because the Sunday after the Full Moon on or after the Vernal Equinox (March 21) is designated as the Annual Easter Sunday. Earliest possible date is March 22 and latest is April 25.

Beginning on the Sunday immediately before Easter Sunday, the Church celebrates the focal point of the Christian Faith: The Paschal Mystery, that is, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. For this reason, these days constitute the Holy Week. 

"Paschal" with its root word "Pasch" comes from the Hebrew "Pesach" which is the Jewish Festival of the Passover that commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt. On the night before they left Egypt, the Israelites prepared their homes and themselves so that the Angel of Death should "Pass Over" them and thus they would be spared from the tenth plague: the death of every first-born, of man and beast alike.

Jesus gave new meaning to this Passover Feast when in His Passion and Death that happened during the days of the Annual Festival of the Passover, He sacrificed Himself as the Lamb without blemish, an offering pleasing to God, and "Passed Over" from Death to glorious Resurrection. This is the greatest and holiest mystery of our faith.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord sets the tone of the week. Like an overture in an opera, it gives us a glimpse of the whole week. After the glorious commemoration of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the Passion of the Lord is read to be kept in mind for the rest of the week. How God, in his great love for each of us, sent His Only Son to suffer and die to save us from our sins so that we will merit Eternal Life. It is also called “Domingo de Ramos”. “Ramos” is the Spanish word for branches. People welcomed Jesus by waving palm, olive and other branches, greeting him: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” These days, people prepare branches (palm, olive or other trees) to be blessed and later to be devoutly kept in their home as a reminder of Christ’s Triumph over Sin and Death. These branches will be brought to the Church the following year before Ash Wednesday to be burned and their ashes to be used to mark crosses on foreheads at the beginning of the annual season of Lent.

The Paschal Triduum of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord begins with the Thursday of the Lord’s Supper, continues with Friday of the Passion of the Lord, has its center in the Saturday Easter Vigil in the Holy Night, and closes with Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Sunday of the Resurrection. (GNLYC 19) From the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper to the Easter Vigil, is a One Complete Liturgy. That is why, there is no blessing and dismissal at the end of the liturgies of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday but only at the end of the Easter Vigil in the night of Holy Saturday. This period ranks highest in the order of celebrations of the entire liturgical year. If Sunday, the Little Easter, has preeminence on all the days of the week, the Sacred Paschal Triduum must be central in the whole liturgical life of every Christian.

Within the Holy Week, we end our penitential journey of Lent on Holy Thursday at the same time come into the Sacred Paschal Triduum, the unique ecclesiastical period of three days that bridges Lent and Easter. On Easter Sunday, the glorious Easter Season begins.


FULL PHOTO CREDIT to: PNP Bicolandia

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