Holy Week begins

It marks the official start of Holy Week, which chronicles Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.

Holy Week culminates the liturgy of Easter.

Locally, Palm Sunday services are marked by large processions of joyful, palm-carrying parishioners, symbolising Christ’s journey into Jerusalem before his crucifixion on Good Friday.

“Palm Sunday is a drama in itself because people love a procession with palms. You will get that in all of the parishes,” says Roman Catholic priest Fr Garfield Richard.

He said according to sacred scripture, Jesus Christ went into Jerusalem where the people greeted him by cutting palm branches.

“In that way, he was fulfilling scripture there. That is what we begin Holy Week with, ‘Blessings on Him who comes in the name of the Lord, glory in the highest heaven.’So, it is a messianic kind of forecast that he was coming to fulfil.” Symbolically, Rochard said Palm Sunday is followed by Holy Thursday, in which Christ washed the feet of his disciples and shared his last supper with them before dying on the Cross.

Holy Thursday sets the stage for the Easter Triduum: Good Friday; Glorious Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Rochard, who is based at Mt St Benedict after having serving some 14 years at the Church of the Assumption, Maraval, said Mass is not celebrated on Good Friday.

“But we have the Word of God and the Passion,” he said.

“We also have prayers for special intentions as well as the unveiling and veneration of the Cross and communion.” Rochard said on Good Friday, Christians also re-enact the Way of the Cross in different arrangements, either through a public display or within the confines of the church.

“There is no recessional hymn on Good Friday and churchgoers usually depart in silence,” he added.

Rochard said Glorious Saturday should be spent in quiet reflection until evening.

“It is a quiet day because it represents Christ in the tomb and then after sunset, we celebrate the rising of Christ from the dead.

That is a very special ceremony because it lights a new fire to give us the paschal candle flames to signify Christ rising from the dead.” Nine readings chronicling the history of creation to salvation with Christ are a highlight of Glorious Saturday, Rochard said.

“In a very precise form, it tells you how God began to save man after man’s sins in the Garden and goes straight to the announcing of Christ rising from the dead.” The priest said on that night, adults who desire to become Catholics are also welcomed into the church while the faithful renew their faith.

Rochard said the Easter vigil was a very long ceremony “but lazy Catholics do not go to long ceremonies so they wait until they get a shorter celebration which normally is the Easter Sunday morning.” “For those who like to get involved in the ceremony, they will go to the Easter vigil. But those who like to fulfil their Catholic obligations will take Easter Sunday morning, then spend the rest of the day partying and whatever else.” Asked about the significance of Easter on the church’s calender, Rochard said: “It is the most important feast of the year, the most important of all our celebrations.” Easter, he said, also symbolised newness as it occurs at a time when the northern regions of the world experience spring.

Rochard, said there also was a secular side to Easter, which often superseded the importance of the occasion “Easter is about the resurrection of Christ. But then it falls on long weekend and the climate is right for sun, salt, swimming. It is a time for kite-flying and other social arrangements,” he said.

“It is a holiday time and the holiday does not reflect how we celebrate it because Christmas is a celebration of family and gatherings and Easter, while it is not much about family gatherings, we gather in the church and outside of the church services, we recreate.

That is the way society responds to it.”