Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday, the start of Passion Week. Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the praise and adoration of the crowds, who laid palm branches on the road before Him as He passed by, singing Hosanna in the highest! Four days later He would be arrested and five days later, put to death on in a Roman crucifixion.

This is the holiest week of the liturgical year as we end the week, actually begin the next week with Easter Sunday, our redemption is made complete in the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior!

 

The Passion really begins with Holy Thursday with the "Lord's Supper," which is the first celebration of the Catholic Eucharist. Even before He dies upon the Cross, He is offering Himself in the Eucharist - "This IS My body..." and "This IS My blood..." He declares precisely - no symbolism, "IS" is not symbolic language. The same holds true for John 6, where He declares/commands that we MUST eat His flesh or we have "no life" in us - and not just once, but REPEATEDLY in just a few verses! Then when even many of His disciples said this was a hard saying - and left Him - He did not back down! He challenged The Twelve, "will you also leave?" To which Peter said, "To whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 

The Passion continues on Holy Thursday when Jesus goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemene - the Agony in the Garden. It is here where Judas completes his betrayal and hands Jesus over to the guards who arrested Him.

The Passion continues into Friday (Good Friday) morning, where Jesus faces Caiaphas and Pilate, is cruelly scourged and then handed over to the Roman guard to carry His Cross to Calvary, where He is crucified and died.

The culmination of Holy Week ends with the Easter Vigil, the First Mass of Easter (traditionally the Vigil starts around 10pm on Holy Saturday, then at midnight the purple veils are removed from the holy artwork and statues as Mass begins - and we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus!

Have a blessed Holy Week!

 

Why The Purple Shrouds of Passiontide?

"In some places images and statues are actually removed from the church and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday.

Crosses are unveiled after the Good Friday ceremonies. All other images are unveiled shortly before the Mass of the Easter Vigil.

Neither the Stations of the Cross nor stained glass windows are ever veiled." (1)

"It reminds us that Jesus hid his glory during his Passion, so too we hide away our religious items in order to prepare ourselves to focus on and honor his Passion." (2)

Passiontide begins on the Fifth Sunday of Lent and lasts through the remainder of the Lenten season.  It is traditionally called Passiontide because on Passion Sunday (under the new lectionary, "The Fifth Sunday of Lent") the reading of the Passion of Christ is read during at least one of the Masses on this Sunday.

So Why Do We Cover Statues and Images?
During this period our focus is drawn to the Passion of the Christ.  Thoughts and meditations on other saints are put aside for these two weeks.

"As with any liturgical practice, there is never a single reason why something is done. Liturgical signs are meaningful as liturgical signs because they draw forms from the best of nature and culture(s) combined with divine inspiration (if not outright institution) and religious Tradition. Christian symbolism is better considered as a system of signs each with a synthesis of overlapping meanings based on the growth of religious practice...  One shift of focus of this season is an emphasis on Christ's humanity: the sacrifice inherent in the Incarnation and the sacrifice that is the Passion. Of course the constant totality of the liturgical celebration never allows us to lose sight of Christ's divinity, without which the Incarnation would not be a sacrifice and the Passion would lose its efficacy. So veiling images of Christ's glorified body, Christ victorious, and Christ risen, along with images of those who are now in his presence, helps enact that shift." (3)

During the Easter Vigil, as the statues, etc. are unveiled, not only is it a time of joy in the Resurrection, but all the splendor and glory is returned to the sanctuary too.

In some jurisdictions the veiling of images and statues does not happen until Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday).  As quoted above, the images and crosses of the Stations of the Cross are not veiled, nor are stained glass windows.  Then, on Good Friday, attention turns to the Crucifixion, and images of the Crucifix are uncovered.  All images and statues are unveiled just before the Mass of the Easter Vigil begins (about half-way through the Easter Vigil).



Sources:

(1) https://www.ewtn.com/library/Liturgy/zlitur72.htm

(2) https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/a-lenten-tradition-veiling-the-cross/

(3) https://www.locusiste.org/blog/2015/03/veiling-images-in-lent

Passion Sunday

What is Passion Sunday?  
Prior to the 1970 Mass, often referred to as the Novus Ordo Missae, the liturgical year included Passion Sunday.  This was the day all the statues and holy images were veiled in purple.  The tradition is not prohibited today - but not nearly as widely practiced as it used to be.  The readings for Mass became more focused on the discord between Jesus and the Jews and upon the Passion of our Lord.

The Epistle:

Hebrews 9:11-15  Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

¹¹ But Christ, being come an high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, that is, not of this creation:

¹² Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh:

¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

¹⁵ And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

 The Gospel:

John 8:46-59 Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

⁴⁶ Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me?

⁴⁷ He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.

⁴⁸ The Jews therefore answered, and said to him: Do not we say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?

⁴⁹ Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me.

⁵⁰ But I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

⁵¹ Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever.

⁵² The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever.

⁵³ Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself?

⁵⁴ Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God.

⁵⁵ And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word.

⁵⁶ Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad.

⁵⁷ The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

⁵⁸ Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.

⁵⁹ They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

In the Novus Ordo, or Ordinary Rite, Passion Sunday is combined with Palm Sunday.  In a way, this is a bit tragic, as Palm Sunday, though the start of Passion Week, is a day of celebration and praising the Messiah's entrance into Jerusalem.

As for me and my family, we adhere to the tradition of covering all statues and pictures of Jesus and the Saints on Passion Sunday - and they are removed after the First Mass of Easter Sunday (the removal of the veils is actually part of the Easter Vigil - which takes us into the First Mass of Easter).