Palm Sunday - April 13


On this day, we pack into the narthex bearing our palms and listen to a Gospel reading recounting Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with his disciples before processing into the sanctuary.

In recent years, these exclamations have troubled me; after all, not long after this moment of praise, we hear (or say) the words, “Crucify him!” It can feel vaguely uneasy to join in triumphal exclamations knowing that we’ll soon be meditating on the disciples who betrayed Jesus - betrayals mirrored in our own lives. Does that sense of unease miss the point of Palm Sunday’s opening rite?

Turning to Luke, we learn that those who cry out are a “multitude” of his “disciples” - that is, a veritable crowd of outsiders who gradually joined Jesus as pilgrims on his journey from Galilee up to Jerusalem. They exclaim, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” The first sentence is shared with the other Gospels and derives from Psalm 118. The exclamations arguably anticipate the Messiah. Importantly, those crying out are the pilgrim-disciples 
who journeyed with Jesus to Jerusalem for Passover - not Jerusalem’s inhabitants, who will soon demand Jesus’ crucifixion.

The Church doesn’t shy away from these exclamations out of a sense of shame that they are the fickle words of crowds poised to betray Jesus. Rather, we sing them at Mass during the Sanctus. Similar practices date back to the “earliest post-Easter liturgical text that we possess - the Didache,” which dates from around 100 A.D. See Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two: Holy Week (Pope Benedict XVI, 2010). When we repeat these exclamations in the modern liturgy, we identify with Jesus’ pilgrim-disciples on Palm Sunday. Just as they saw a Messiah riding up in humble form, the Church sees him “coming again and again in the humble form of bread and wine.” Id. He’s coming to take us with him, to his Cross and Resurrection. On this Palm Sunday, and at every Mass, we can reflect on the Eucharistic significance of this Psalm-inspired exclamation; and joyfully join with Jesus’ pilgrim-disciples in praising our Messiah.

Q: Where are my heart and my mind during the Sanctus at Mass? If I can imagine myself in the crowd, and see Jesus turn to look at me, what does he say?

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