Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 In terms of the ceremonies this morning, uh, the way that the Palm Sunday is obviously with the, with the palms, we start off with the blessing of the pumps. So have some pumps that are bless here. Those were for the altar boys. And the same time I have intentioned blessing all the palms and branches that people brought here. See, hold them up during the blessing, but don't worry if a child or somebody forgets to hold them up, they're blessed. Cause I intend to bless them. So it isn't like if I'm not holding it, it's not blessed. They'll be blessed. So what'll happen is we'll start with that. I'll bless him. We'll sprinkle it. It was with Holy water and then incense him. And then we go around, it's kind of like a really heavy duty, a spare just where you kind of make full lap around all the aisles with the wooly water.
Speaker 0 00:00:40 And then the same thing with incense. Then, then all the branches and Palm are blessed here and in the ritual actually has like, you'll hear it well for those who listen to Latin, it'll say palms and other branches, that's actually what happens. So those will be a blessing. So the intention of blessing Moland church. Well, uh, after that, uh, we'll come back and uh, and I'll, I'll give the Palm branches to the ultra boys. It's like communion for them and then wash my hands. Then we'll sing the gospel that I just read to you. The gospel Palm Sunday after that was, I'll say <inaudible>, which means let us proceed and priests, and we'll lead the way, the thorough for the crop spirit and acolytes and myself and other altar boys that go along and the choir will meet up with us. And then we're all gonna go out the front rows, go out first as we go on by, you go out just to reflect and go behind us.
Speaker 0 00:01:32 And we're going to go right out the door, go to the right. We're going to go right on a close lane here in the parking lot, make a curve down the far lane in the parking lot and back and back in and we'll come back in then. And uh, and w as we, as we come back in, then we'll get up here after we'll that there's one more blessing. Then after everybody gets in, then that particular blessing pertains to having these things scare away devils, which is kind of cool. And then after that, a mass will start now in mass. Uh, it it's the same jet basically, except the gospel in the mass is something it's the passion. So father will be come out of the confessional for that and for command. And he'll come out to sing the passion cause we sing there's different parts for that.
Speaker 0 00:02:20 And there's no last Aspel today. So that's the other difference. So that's, that's what you can see in the ceremony. So, okay. So that's explanation of what's going to happen now. What does it all mean? Well, we could preach on any one of these things for a long time. We'll make a few remarks about the first Palm Sunday and then a few marks about the meaning of the ceremonies. We've I heard this all before, but it bears repeating. We'll start with the root that our Lord chose to go up. And the Bethlehem that we just heard in the reading just now on Palm Sunday, our Lord goes up to Jerusalem from Bethany. Now Bethany means the house upright face. It's the hometown of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. And it's also where during all of Holy week or Lord will come back from Jerusalem and stay and spend the night until of course, Holy Thursday, when he's captured, but he's coming up from Bethany, Stan in Bethany, the house of right fakes and coming up in Jerusalem.
Speaker 0 00:03:18 But he travels through Beth phage on the way to Jerusalem every day. Beth phage means the house of unripe green fakes. So what, what does this mean? Well, if we turn back the clock to about a year before Holy week earlier in his public ministry, our Lord Lord had warned the multitudes, unless you repent, you will all perish. And immediately after he made that warning immediately after the solemn warning from our Lord saying, unless you repent you'll perish, he then told them a parable, our Lord quote, a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and he found none. And he said to the vine dresser lo these three years, I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree. And I find none, cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And the vine dresser answered him saying, let it alone, sir, this year also until I dig about it and put on the newer, and if it bears fruit next year, well and good.
Speaker 0 00:04:24 But if not, you can cut it down close quote. The multitudes knew exactly what our Lord was talking about in this parable. Fig tree is one of the signs, symbols, Jewish people. He's warning them to bring forth fruits of repentance in the parable. The man who owns a vineyard stands for God. The father, the vine dresser stands for Christ. Our Lord, the fig tree stands for the Jewish nation, which of course our Lord has spent some three and a half years trying to get good fruits to come forth from them. So what does this have to do with Palm Sunday? His path into Jerusalem. He's coming up from Bethany, the house of ripe phase, a town where he has found fruits of repentance in such people as Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And he's coming up to Jerusalem, but he doesn't come from there. He goes to Beth phage, this house of unripe green fakes to Holy city.
Speaker 0 00:05:21 It's a symbolic warning. And the day after Palm Sunday, what does he do as he's coming up to Jerusalem through Bethpage, he stops and searches for fruit on a fig tree. And when he finds none, he curses it and it Withers and dies. Why is he cursing it? Yeah, it's a symbolic and a frightening ending to this parable. He's showing them by his actions what's going on. He sought fruit on that fig tree and found on justice for three and a half years. He's been seeking good fruit from his people. It's obvious what he's saying to his people by these actions. Where are your fruits of repentance? What about our Lord riding up on an ass in the cult of an ass? What's all that about. This is a fulfillment of a promise. Prophecy Zacharias. It was quoted in st. Matthew's gospel today. There's point out that our Lord first rode on ass for a while.
Speaker 0 00:06:21 Then he got offer and he got on the Colt and rolled a Colt in a town. Why the ass broke to ride, but the cold wasn't the ass. It was a symbol of the Jews. Who'd been subject to God and his law and the cult represented the Gentiles. Who'd been running wild when our Lord wrote the ass briefly and then got off and wrote in on the Colt. He was again, symbolically warning. The Jews you're about to be rejected and the Gentiles are going to take your place. So what's with the palms in the olden days for both Jews and Gentiles, Palm symbolized, victory and triumph. For example, if we look in the books in the old Testament of Leviticus and first Maccabees, we can see palms used by the Jews for just these purposes. As we see today, and our Lord saw an entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, champions at Roman games got Palm branches, palms were else using the great triumphs by which Roman emperor would celebrate as victories.
Speaker 0 00:07:26 We still see this, this idea in Christian art and writing, for example, in stained glass windows are Holy cards of martyrs. Oftentimes just see the mater standing there holding a POM, or you'll read about the modern need to say he won the Palm a victory. What's it stand for? The Palm stands for the martyrs. Triumphalism victory over death. That's why you'll see him standing there. If you see a, uh, then that's what, that's what that standing for in Christian art. Now there's a lot more, but we'll just take a moment to consider the symbolism of what all we're doing here, the procession outside, and then back into the church on one level on the first level of the most basic level represents our Lord enter entry into Jerusalem. But on another level, it also represents the triumphal entry into the heavenly Jerusalem. This is I've mentioned before it was alive.
Speaker 0 00:08:17 He's here to see until Pius the 12th off change. Holy week ceremonies in late 1955. Because before that, when the procession would arrive back at church, the doors would be closed inside. So the procession stops at the church doors inside the church. You have a choir and they're seeing this beautiful Hemel here today. Glory Laos. It honored to be CIT Rex. Chris de Redemptor, which means glory, uh, praise and honor be under the Oh Christ King and Redeemer. So they're inside singing this through the closed doors. Then the choir outside answers the choir inside the choir outside represents the church, melted the choir inside represents the church, triumphant inside. It's representing the angels in heaven, singing outside, it's representing mankind and the church militant, but you can't get into heaven. Our Lord until our Lord, essentially Thursday heaven's closed. Huh? So they sing to him back and forth through closed doors.
Speaker 0 00:09:16 After the whole, him, his son, then the cross bear bangs on the doors with the cross and the doors open up, they're thrown open. And that symbolizes the opening of heaven by the Holy cross of our Lord and his Ascension leading the members of the church, militant to have tried folder sin, carrying their palms up into the heavenly true slum, joining the angels then at the ranks of the church triumphant. Okay, right after that, then during the course of the mass, we have the singing of the passion and I'll just point out something to the passion ends with some music called involve. It, involve it, which means the wrapping or winding during the involvement. If you listen to it, you don't have to understand Latin cause the melody itself is a musical expression of the whining of linens, Rhonda Lord's body. It's right at the very, very end. You won't miss it. Cause all of a sudden all the music changes. Even it doesn't matter how, how a poor singer we are. You can still pick that part out. Okay. Then there's another change in this part of the divine liturgy. Before these changes in Holy week during the singing of the passion, we'd all stand there and hold our palms. Why it symbolized that? Although our Lord's disciples abandoned, hindering the passion, we'd be faithful to him until the end.
Speaker 0 00:10:35 That's worth thinking about these changes for a moment. Why? Because for the past 50 years, we no longer open the closed doors of the church by banging the mountain on them with the cross. So what, well, that means that liturgically speaking for the past 50 years, we have no longer been clearly declaring that by means of the Holy cross. And only by means of the Holy cross. Can we get into heaven? And for the past 50 years, we no longer hold up the columns during the singing of the passion. So what, well, that means that liturgically speaking, we're no longer clearly declaring that we're going to remain faithful to Christ even during the passion of his mystical body, the church here on earth.
Speaker 0 00:11:25 And I think those liturgical changes are absolutely prophetic. I think they're absolutely prophetic. The scene of the patch reminds us that between the triumphal procession of our Lord into Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his triumphal procession to the heavenly Jerusalem on essential Thursday, our Lord had to suffer his agony and his passion that had to give every one of us pause because in the first place we put him through all that. We put him through that by our sins, the second place, because as Catholics, as members of the one true religion, our Lord has the same exact message for us as he did for the multitudes of the Jews. He's been coming to look for fruits of repentance in our lives during this Holy season of lent, he's warned each one of us time and time again, unless you repent, you will surely perish in a third place just as our Lord used his path up into Jerusalem, just to use a fig tree and an ass Nichold to warn the Jewish people, symbolically of his collective judgment of him.
Speaker 0 00:12:46 So also he's given us Catholics, very clear indications of his collective judgment of us. Very clear indications. Let's consider three first that they stationed across our Lord says to the weeping women. Don't wait for me, wait for your children for there will come a time when they will say blessed are the barren, the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never gave suck. In other words, he's telling the women, they should wait for the people that live in that time. The time when our Lord will come again, looking for fruit, fruit of the womb babies. But instead of finding those fruits, he'll find people, his own people who say blessed are the barren. He'll find people that actually think it is better to not have children to be sterilized to contracept, or even to abort those fruits. He's telling the women of Jerusalem to wait for the people in that time, the time when they will not bring forth the fruits as you expect. And you don't need me to tell you that we're living in that time.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 Second, one of the most precious fruits that are absolutely loves and he seeks from his people are religious congregations full of obedient and fervent Holy men and women living a life of Holy religion. But what is he finding? We'll just consider the male congregations here in the United States of America, between 1965 and 2000. The number of Jesuit seminarians decreased by 89% between 1965 and 2000. The number of OFM seminaries that's Franciscan decrease by 97% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Benedict and seminarians decreased by 93% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Redemptor seminarians decreased by 98% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Dominican seminarians decreased by 89% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Mariano's seminarians decreased by 98% between 1965 and 2000. The number of OMI that's the old way to Merrimack with seminarians is decreased by 99% between 1965 and 2000. The number of intention seminar is decreased by 97% between 1965 and 2000.
Speaker 0 00:15:39 The number of all fam what did friar minor conventional seminary is decreased by 90% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Pash, the seminarians decreased by 99% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Holy cross seminarians decreased by 70% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Augustinians seminaries decreased by 97% between 1965 and 2000. The number of orphan caption seminar is decreased by 91%, between 1965 and 2000. The number of precious blood seminarians decreased by 95% between 1965 and 2000. The number of loss led seminarians decreased by 99% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Carmelite seminarians decreased by 92% between 1965 and 2000. The number of Holy ghost is decreased by 94%. What sort of fruits are these? And before we go, pony fingers are each of us praying for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.
Speaker 0 00:17:02 Finally, our Lord is also giving Catholics a very clear indication of his collective judgment of us by the general state of the church at st. John U it's explains quote, the most evident Mark of God's anger and the most terrible castigation he can afflict upon the world are manifested. When he permits his people to fall into the hands of clergy who are priests more in name than indeed when God permits such things, it is a very positive proof. It is a very positive proof that he is thoroughly angry with his people and is visiting his most dreadful anger upon them close quote.
Speaker 0 00:17:49 God's warning us collectively as a Catholic people. He is thoroughly angry with us. We each need to bring forth fruits of repentance. We each need to get serious about sanctity. If anyone here does not have a burning desire to become a Saint, then start praying for that right now, not later, not tomorrow right now, as Saint Alphonsus says, quote, he wishes to reach the top of a high mountain. We'll never reach it if he has not a great desire to do so. What have you come to do in the house of God to become a Saint? And what are you doing? Why do you lose the time? Tell me, do you desire to become a Saint? If you do not, it is sure that you will never become one. If then you have not. This desire ask Jesus Christ for it, ask Mary for it. And if you have it, take courage, close quote, pray for the desire to become a Saint pray for burning desire to become a Saint. We each need to bring forth fruits of repentance. We each need to get serious about sanctity. We each need to become Holy by means of holiness. Then we can each win the glorious Palm, a victory and fall Christ, our Lord and his glorious triumphal procession into heaven. Let's commit ourselves, each one of us right here and right now to holiness.
