Pope ushers in Holy Week with solemn Palm Sunday liturgy

(April 02, 2012) Pope Benedict preached a message of unity as he ushered in Christianity’s Holy Week, celebrating a solemn Palm Sunday Mass before tens of thousands of faithful packed into St Peter’s Square in Rome. In a homily recalling the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, days before he was crucified, Pope Benedict said the underlying resonance of the Easter celebration was the shared destiny of humanity. The festive acclamation of ‘Hosanna’ expresses the unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the longed-for Messiah has finally come. “Here,” the Pope said, “we find the first great message that today’s feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations.” Dressed in red and gold, the Pope led the service before dozens of bishops and cardinals as well as pilgrims holding palm and olive leaves to commemorate the Gospel episode of Jesus being welcomed by the people with branches as he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. However, the Pope noted that the majority were disappointed by the way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. During the Holy Week, the Pope said we are called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne. We are called to follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness, but the happiness of heaven, divine beatitude. Palm Sunday, a moveable feast held on the Sunday before Easter, marks the start of Holy Week, leading up to Easter Sunday, the most solemn of Christian feasts. In his homily, Pope Benedict also had special words for young people, as the Church marks the annual World Youth Day at the diocesan level on Palm Sunday. The theme of this year’s observance was, “Rejoice in the Lord always”. The Pope wished that Palm Sunday be a day of decision for them, the decision to say yes to the Lord and to follow him all the way, the decision to make his Passover, his death and resurrection, the very focus of their Christian lives. “It is the decision that leads to true joy…,” he said, offering them luminous examples in Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi.
At the end of the Mass, before praying the “Angelus”, Pope Benedict XVI greeted those present and especially the young people. He devoted "special greeting" to the " the Organizing Committee of the last World Youth Day in Madrid and those organizing the next one, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2013, as well as delegates to the International Meeting on World Youth Day, sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Laity. Speaking in English, he said, “This Holy Week, may we be moved again by Christ’s passion and death, put our sins behind us and, with God’s grace, choose a life of love and service to our brethren.”
The German pontiff, who will turn 85 on April 16 has an intense Holy Week of celebrations ahead. On Holy Thursday, he will celebrate a morning Chrism Mass in the Vatican, and later will lead the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in St. John Lateran Basilica during which he will kiss and wash the feet of 12 men, in a gesture celebrating Jesus’ humility towards his apostles on the night before he died. On Good Friday, the only day in the liturgical calendar without a Mass in commemoration of the crucifixion and death of Jesus, the pope will lead the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion in the Vatican before leading a torch-lit “Way of the Cross” at night around the ancient Colosseum in Rome. Holy Week culminates on Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and when the Pope will deliver his twice yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (the city and the world) blessing and message.