Palm Sunday - Entering Holy Week
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
By Lois Rogers | Features Editor
On Palm Sunday, the door to the most sacred and solemn week of the year opened in parishes around the diocese and indeed, around the world.
In one of those parishes, Little Egg Harbor’s St. Theresa, that door was opened by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., who, as main celebrant at the 11:30 a.m. Mass, invited the nearly 1,000 parishioners present to cross the threshold with him as Jesus did, and enter Jerusalem where celebration and sorrow awaited him.
Click HERE for gallery of photos.
The invitation was extended in a homily that struck the chords of Holy Week –both mellifluous and melancholy – as the bishop encouraged the faithful to enter “the house that is Jerusalem through the door that is Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday.”
As they prepared to enter that house on that holiest of weeks, he encouraged them to study the surroundings closely because the apparent joy of Palm Sunday “may be a bit deceiving: crowds cheering Jesus as King, palms and olive branches thrown before his feet,” cries of “hosanna to the Son of David,” will all soon evaporate into thin air, he pointed out.
“As we move through the house, the environment changes, we get a different picture and impression,” for, noted the bishop, clad in the scarlet vestments denoting martyrdom, “Jerusalem is the place where prophets go to die. Soon the crowd will turn ugly. The cheers will become jeers. The supporters thin out.”
Even the apostles, he said, would scatter “as Jesus walks the path to Calvary. No palms. No olive branches, no hosannas; only shame, condemnation and spitting…”
“From the door where we stand and through which we pass, we see Jerusalem. We see the King enter. We witness his passion. And we suddenly realize that the house looks a bit different than we first thought. Ours is a God who is willing to suffer not only for us but with us.”
The bishop encouraged everyone to take comfort in that fact saying, “There is no place in our humanity or our very bodies where God is not present. He knows what we go through --- everything---and that is what he brings through the door of Palm Sunday to his home on the cross and beyond.”
Father K. Michael Lambeth, pastor, who concelebrated with Bishop O’Connell, noted after the Mass that throughout Holy Week, Christians are asked not only to recall, but relive the Paschal Mystery of Christ: His suffering, death and Resurrection.
Palm Sunday not only opens the door to Holy Week, he said, but offers a way to focus on the impact “of what we are doing. This week is a very powerful and spiritual experience of walking with the Lord.”
In his homily, Father Lambeth said, Bishop O’Connell shed light on the strength and courage it takes to “be an Apostle of Christ, to know the persecution that awaited him,” and, he said, the persecution many perceive as continuing down through the ages.
“What gives me so much joy in this season, is that the parish community recognizes that and is spiritually moving with the Lord,” said Father Lambeth.
Having Bishop O’Connell make his first pastoral visit to the parish on Palm Sunday shone a light on the fact that the parish and the diocese move spiritually with the Lord, he said. “The visit accentuated the reality of the diocesan family and that our shepherd led us through the door, helped us to understand we are all walking together.”
And indeed, there was a real sense of that recognition as, after the Mass, parishioners, carrying their own blessed palms walked across the campus from the church to the Faith Formation Center for a light reception.
As they walked, they reflected on the days to come and how the bishop’s visit buoyed their intentions to make the most of this week.
Christine and Thomas Genecki, members of the parish for 30 years, said the opportunity to begin Holy Week with the bishop was “the real deal, a wonderful way to start Holy Week.”
Evelyn Lavender , parish secretary, attending with three generations of her family including new great-granddaughter Arianna, said that because the parish is at the geographic “toe” of the diocese, “we sometimes feel like we’re the last of the Mohicans. This was a great beginning for this holy time.”
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By Lois Rogers | Features Editor
On Palm Sunday, the door to the most sacred and solemn week of the year opened in parishes around the diocese and indeed, around the world.
In one of those parishes, Little Egg Harbor’s St. Theresa, that door was opened by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., who, as main celebrant at the 11:30 a.m. Mass, invited the nearly 1,000 parishioners present to cross the threshold with him as Jesus did, and enter Jerusalem where celebration and sorrow awaited him.
Click HERE for gallery of photos.
The invitation was extended in a homily that struck the chords of Holy Week –both mellifluous and melancholy – as the bishop encouraged the faithful to enter “the house that is Jerusalem through the door that is Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday.”
As they prepared to enter that house on that holiest of weeks, he encouraged them to study the surroundings closely because the apparent joy of Palm Sunday “may be a bit deceiving: crowds cheering Jesus as King, palms and olive branches thrown before his feet,” cries of “hosanna to the Son of David,” will all soon evaporate into thin air, he pointed out.
“As we move through the house, the environment changes, we get a different picture and impression,” for, noted the bishop, clad in the scarlet vestments denoting martyrdom, “Jerusalem is the place where prophets go to die. Soon the crowd will turn ugly. The cheers will become jeers. The supporters thin out.”
Even the apostles, he said, would scatter “as Jesus walks the path to Calvary. No palms. No olive branches, no hosannas; only shame, condemnation and spitting…”
“From the door where we stand and through which we pass, we see Jerusalem. We see the King enter. We witness his passion. And we suddenly realize that the house looks a bit different than we first thought. Ours is a God who is willing to suffer not only for us but with us.”
The bishop encouraged everyone to take comfort in that fact saying, “There is no place in our humanity or our very bodies where God is not present. He knows what we go through --- everything---and that is what he brings through the door of Palm Sunday to his home on the cross and beyond.”
Father K. Michael Lambeth, pastor, who concelebrated with Bishop O’Connell, noted after the Mass that throughout Holy Week, Christians are asked not only to recall, but relive the Paschal Mystery of Christ: His suffering, death and Resurrection.
Palm Sunday not only opens the door to Holy Week, he said, but offers a way to focus on the impact “of what we are doing. This week is a very powerful and spiritual experience of walking with the Lord.”
In his homily, Father Lambeth said, Bishop O’Connell shed light on the strength and courage it takes to “be an Apostle of Christ, to know the persecution that awaited him,” and, he said, the persecution many perceive as continuing down through the ages.
“What gives me so much joy in this season, is that the parish community recognizes that and is spiritually moving with the Lord,” said Father Lambeth.
Having Bishop O’Connell make his first pastoral visit to the parish on Palm Sunday shone a light on the fact that the parish and the diocese move spiritually with the Lord, he said. “The visit accentuated the reality of the diocesan family and that our shepherd led us through the door, helped us to understand we are all walking together.”
And indeed, there was a real sense of that recognition as, after the Mass, parishioners, carrying their own blessed palms walked across the campus from the church to the Faith Formation Center for a light reception.
As they walked, they reflected on the days to come and how the bishop’s visit buoyed their intentions to make the most of this week.
Christine and Thomas Genecki, members of the parish for 30 years, said the opportunity to begin Holy Week with the bishop was “the real deal, a wonderful way to start Holy Week.”
Evelyn Lavender , parish secretary, attending with three generations of her family including new great-granddaughter Arianna, said that because the parish is at the geographic “toe” of the diocese, “we sometimes feel like we’re the last of the Mohicans. This was a great beginning for this holy time.”
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