Rubric for Palm Sunday: Read the Passion Passionately

“A great crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut down palm branches and spread them before Him.” (Mt. 21:8)

 

Rubric for Palm Sunday:

Read the Passion Passionately 

Palm (or Passion) Sunday, March 24, 2013

At the procession with palms

Luke 19:28-40 

 

At the Mass of Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-7   Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 23:1-49

Palm Sunday

Today, March 24, Palm Sunday, is the opening of Holy Week. We receive blessed palms in remembrance of the first Palm Sunday when the Lord rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. The incredible news that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn. 11:1-45) had spread far and wide. So when the people heard that He was coming to town, they enthusiastically went out to welcome the wonder-worker. Cheering crowds laid palm branches before Him, as He rode into Jerusalem, seated upon a donkey.

Passover

This week is holy also for the Jewish community. This coming Tuesday, March 26, is the first day of Passover - a seven-day celebration commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Lord God instructed the enslaved Israelites to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb. Then the Lord God rained death upon the unmarked homes of the Egyptians, but passed over the homes of the Israelites marked with the blood of the lamb. Hence the Feast of Passover. (Ex. 12:21-23)

`The Sound of Silence’

If the Passion is read passionately, if it’s read eloquently, it speaks for itself, and it needs no further words. After an eloquent reading of the Passion the ` Sound of Silence’ is far more powerful than the words of a preacher who might feel that he needs to add a few words of his own. After the readers have worked hard at an eloquent reading of the Passion, let the` Sound of Silence’ speak loudly for itself.