Holy Week, the mother of all weeks. Palm Sunday (A)

We are now entering the final stretch of our Lenten journey. It is a week that contains three seasons of the liturgical year: Lent, the Sacred Easter Triduum and Easter.

This Sunday is known as Palm Sunday or, in other places, Palm Sunday. Whether it is olive branches or palms, it is not really the most important thing. The essential thing is that it is the Sunday of the Lord's Passion. This Sunday is one of those days when people make a visible expression of their faith, just like Ash Wednesday. It is a day when everyone leaves the Church with a visible sign of their participation: a branch of a tree. In the Gospel that is proclaimed during the procession, we read that «the crowd carpeted the road with their cloaks; some cut branches from trees and carpeted the roadway.». Jesus makes his entry into Jerusalem on his way to the Passion, and we see a large crowd involved in various ways.

The Passion that we read at Mass is long. The very length of the account of the Passion of Christ is a homily in itself and needs no commentary other than silence and a docile and attentive participation in the narrative. It is not enough to listen to it; we are offered a great opportunity to participate fully in the Passion of Christ. The way in which the readings are proclaimed allows us to assume different characters. The best way to enter into Holy Week is by being «as another character» in the scene of the Passion, as St. Josemaría Escrivá and so many other saints encouraged.

Anton Chekhov, in one of his short stories entitled The student, tells the experience of a theology student named Ivan at one of the events of Holy Week. Ivan, walking home on a cold Good Friday evening, felt miserable and discouraged, convinced that life has always been hard and hopeless, from ancient times to his own. He felt that history was nothing but an endless chain of suffering. On the way, he stops by a campfire where two widows, mother and daughter, were warming themselves. To pass the time, he tells them the Gospel story of Peter's denial, how Peter wept bitterly as he recognized his weakness. As Ivan speaks, he notices that the women are deeply moved; one of them begins to weep, clearly touched by Peter's pain. Ivan is deeply affected by this reaction. He then realizes that the feelings Peter experienced centuries ago - the fear, the love, the remorse - are still alive in people today. At that moment, Ivan understands that truth, beauty and goodness unite all generations, forming an unbroken chain throughout time.

As we begin Holy Week, we are invited not only to carry our palms, but also to participate fully in the Passion of Christ. As we hear the Passion as we begin this week, let our hearts be moved. Let us not look at the clock, or be distracted. Let us read it with our hearts.

The past is linked to the present by an unbroken chain of events that spring from one another. Touching one end of the chain should move the other. Listening to the Passion should be like touching one end of that chain: it will move us if we immerse ourselves in it as another character. Holy Week remains the mother of all weeks, the most important week of the Church's liturgical year.