PALM SUNDAY

Dear Parishioners,
It is obvious why Palm Sunday is titled the way it is: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey for the Passover, while many of His fellow Jews waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Blessed palms are taken home by Mass-goers today. On Ash Wednesday, blessed ashes, from burned blessed palms leftover from the year before, were applied to our foreheads, giving the name to this first day of Lent. The distinction between sacramentals and sacraments needs to be brought to our attention always, and it is important that a sacramental is never given more importance than a sacrament. Two good examples: A person should not be upset that he or she is not able to go to Mass and receive ashes on any given Ash Wednesday for various reasons. Ash Wednesday is not a holyday of obligation, nor are ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday a “religious” requirement. If one can attend Mass on Ash Wednesday, that’s commendable, but it’s not required, as are the “forehead” ashes. Palm Sunday, however, is a Sunday, and therefore a day of obligation like any other Sunday, but bringing home a blessed palm is not a requirement – what happens when a church runs out of palms for some reason? The ashes and the palms are sacramentals, and thus, supplemental to our faith and not requirements. A further illustration: A person who makes sure he or she goes to church on Ash Wednesday simply to receive ashes but does not go weekly or at all to Mass is really missing the point, in the same way that the person who makes sure that he or she gets a “nice beautiful palm” on Palm Sunday, but never goes to Mass any other time is missing the point as well. The Blessed Sacrament and Mass, the celebration of the Sacrament, are the really important and crucial things of our Catholicism, and blessed ashes, palms, rosaries, candles, holy cards, Miraculous Medals, and statues are all important but quite secondary. I am in no way downplaying or discouraging sacramentals but putting them where they belong in our faith lives and in our faith journeys. Just as we can’t physically survive only on vitamin supplements, so we can’t spiritually survive only on sacramentals. We need Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and we receive Him first and best in the Mass.