Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio: "Entry into Jerusalem"
The Triumphal Procession:
Hosanna in the Highest
At Jerusalem, in the fourth
century, on the very spot where the Palm procession took place, the Gospel
narrative was read in which we see Christ, hailed as King of Israel and taking
possession of His capital, Jerusalem, which is really no more than the type of
Jerusalem above. After this, a bishop, mounted on an ass, rode up to the Church
of the Resurrection surrounded by a multitude carrying palms and singing
anthems and hymns.
The Church of Rome, it
would seem, adopted this practice about the ninth century and added to it the
rite for the Blessing of the Palms. In this benediction the Church prays for
health of mind and body for those who dwell in houses where the palms are
preserved.
This procession is composed
of the faithful, who with palm in hand and songs of Hosanna on their lips,
proclaim Christ's Kingship every year, throughout the whole world and in all
generations. At the Easter Feast they will be united to this glorious Victor
through the Sacraments. It is this that is represented by the procession when
it stops at the door of the Church, into which some members of the choir have
already found their way. They chant alternately with the clergy, hailing the
King of Glory each in his turn. Soon the door opens after the cross has knocked
on it three times and the procession enters the church; so does the Cross of
Christ open heaven to us and so will the elect one day enter with their Lord
into eternal glory.
We should keep a blessed
palm carefully in our home. It is a sacramental which will obtain for us graces
in virtue of the Church's prayer and strengthen our faith in Christ, who full
of mercy, symbolized by the olive branch whose oil soothes our wounds, has
conquered sin, death and the devil in a victory of which these sacred palms are
the type.
Source: Dom Gaspar
Lefebvre, OSB, 1945, adapted and abridged.
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