Sunday, 13 April, Alay Kapwa Sunday and World Youth Day

Readings — Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24; Phil. 2:6-11; Lk. 23:1-49.

1. Holy Week is the week immediately before Easter. The earliest allusion to this week as a whole is in the "Apostolic Constitutions" (vv. 18, 19), which dates back to the latter half of the 3rd and 4th century. The text speaks about abstinence for all the days of the week before Easter and fasting for Friday and Saturday. 

2. The earliest to emerge into prominence was Good Friday, then Holy Saturday with its vigil. The final three days of Holy Week, the Paschal Triduum, celebrate our Redemption through Christ's Passion, Death, and Resurrection — the Paschal Mystery.  Lent ends as the evening rite of Holy Thursday begins.

3. Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, celebrates the "triumphal" entry of Jesus to Jerusalem. The event is described in all 4 Gospels: Mt. 21:1-11; Mk. 11:1-11; Lk. 13:28-44; and Jn. 12:12-19. As thousands swarm Jerusalem in preparation for the Passover, they ask one another if Jesus would come to the festival. They were eager to see Jesus who had raised Lazarus from the dead.

4. A week before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus goes from Jericho to Bethphage and Bethany. He sends two disciples to get a colt from the village, telling the owner "that the Lord needs it." Jesus sits on the colt, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah — "Say to Daughter Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey'" (Zech. 9:9). 

5. Jesus demonstrates that he is the promised king of Israel and Messiah. To sit on the donkey is a public declaration of his identity and mission. A donkey is an animal of peace, a horse, a war horse, an animal of war. Jesus rides as the Prince of Peace, acting against the Jewish hopes for a political King-Messiah to overthrow Rome. 

6. The disciples and the crowds place their cloaks or branches of trees on the road to welcome Jesus as king. They cry out their praise of God, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming of the kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" (Mk. 11:8-11).