 The third part of today's service is the offering of
the holy Sacrifice. The portions that are sung by the
choir are expressive of the deepest desolation; and the
history of our Lord's Passion, which is now to be read by
anticipation, gives to the rest of the day that character
of saved gloom, which we all know so well. For the last
five or six centuries, the Church has adopted a special
chant for this narrative of the holy Gospel. The
historian, or the evangelist, relates the events in a
tone that is at once grave and pathetic; the words of our
Saviour are sung to a solemn yet sweet melody, which
strikingly contrasts with the high dominant of the
several other interlocutors and the Jewish populace.
During the singing of the Passion, the faithful should
hold their palms in their hands, and, by this emblem of
triumph, protest against the insults offered to Jesus by
His enemies. As we listen to each humiliation and
suffering, all of which were endured out of love for us,
let us offer Him our palm as to our dearest Lord and
King. When should we be more adoring, than when He is
most suffering? These are the leading features of this great day. According to our usual plan, we will add to the prayers and lessons any instructions that seem to be needed. This Sunday, besides its liturgical and popular appellation of Palm Sunday, has had several other names. Thus it was galled Hosanna Sunday, in allusion to the acclamation wherewith the Jews greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem. Our forefathers used also to call it Pascha Floridum, because the feast of the Pasch (or Easter), which is but eight days off, is today in bud, so to speak, and the faithful could begin from this Sunday to fulfil the precept of Easter Communion. It was in allusion to this name, that the Spaniards, having on the Palm Sunday of 1613, discovered the peninsula on the Gulf of Mexico, called it Florida. We also find the name of Capitilavium given to this Sunday, because, during those times when it was the custom to defer till Holy Saturday the baptism of infants born during the preceding months (where such a delay entailed no danger), the parents used, on this day, to wash the heads of these children, out of respect to the holy chrism wherewith they were to be anointed. Later on, this Sunday was, at least in some churches, called the Pasch of the competents, that is, of the catechumens, who were admitted to Baptism; they assembled today in the church, and received a special instruction on the symbol, which had been given to them in the previous scrutiny. In the Gothic Church of Spain, the symbol was not given till today. The Greeks call this Sunday Baiphoros, that is, Palm�bearing. ENDNOTES 1 Zach. ix. 9. 2 St. Mark si. 2. 3 Ibid. 7, and St. Luke xix 35. 4 St. Luke xix. 38. 5 St. Luke i. 32. 6 Cateches. x. versus fin. 7 Act. SS. Jan. 20. 8 Lev. xxiii 40. (Taken from Volume VI of "The Liturgical Year" by Abbot Gueranger O.S.B. published by Marian House, Powers Lake, ND 58773.) |
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