Detroit— Youth groups from a number of parishes were in the congregation as Archbishop Allen Vigneron celebrated Mass on Palm Sunday at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The Palm Sunday observance preceded the annual observance of Holy Week, as Christians remembered the final days of Christ’s earthly ministry, with commemoration of his institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday and his death upon the Cross on Good Friday.
Catechumens and candidates come into full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter Vigil services on Holy Saturday, and Christ’s Resurrection is joyously celebrated at Easter Sunday Masses.
The Palm Sunday liturgy began outdoors, with the clergy and congregation gathered on the cathedral plaza for prayers, followed by priests and people taking part in the procession into the cathedral, carrying palm fronds in commemoration of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
In his Palm Sunday homily, the archbishop said he had invited youth group members to come to the cathedral that day and recalled how “Blessed John Paul II used Palm Sunday as a special occasion to place young people at the very heart of the sacred liturgy.”
He said Palm Sunday really commemorates two days, not only the enthusiastic welcome Jesus received on his entry into the city, but also the sorrowful events of Good Friday.
Archbishop Vigneron noted, however, that the young people among the welcoming throngs shouting “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday “were notably absent the second time Jesus proceeded through Jerusalem.”
The young people were tied more to the future than to the past, he told the congregation.
“‘Hosanna’ is a word that is left untranslated, because it is difficult to translate. It is kind of a combination of ‘Lord, have mercy’ and a group of Marines shouting, ‘Oo-rah!’ — a cry of victory,” the archbishop said.
The seeming success of Palm Sunday had, nevertheless, to be followed by the events of Good Friday, Archbishop Vigneron continued: “The Messiah had to suffer, and so enter into His glory.”
Only this way could He open to us “the future that God had promised His people from the very first day after the Fall,” the archbishop said.
During Holy Week, the Chrism Mass on the morning of Holy Thursday brings representatives of every parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit to the cathedral for the blessing of the holy oils to be used in parishes during the next 12 months.
Later that day, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated in every church, commemorating the institution of the Eucharist and with the clergy emulating the example of Christ in washing the feet of some of those present.
Then, on Good Friday, Christ’s suffering and death upon the Cross are the matter for reflection at Stations of the Cross devotions in churches around the archdiocese.
Holy Saturday evening brings the celebration of Easter Vigil Masses, including the welcoming to full participation of those who have been preparing through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
The Triduum concludes with the festive celebration of Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
More than 1,200 people will become fully sacramentalized Catholics at Easter Vigil Masses this weekend, whether they have been catechumens (joining a Christian Church for the first time), candidates (people converting from other Christian faith communities) or Catholic candidates (those who were baptized Catholic, but never completed their sacraments).
Among the candidates is Linda Brickner, who will be at the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Hope Parish, St. Clair Shores.
Brickner, 66, said she had been a Lutheran all her life, but found in the Catholic Church what she needed to deal with the turmoil she had experienced in her life. “I just found this sense of peace I hadn’t been able to find,” she said.
The feeling first hit her, she said, during a trip to Europe to visit a daughter who was living there, when she visited Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
“While I was standing in that beautiful cathedral, it was like God was speaking to me, drawing me in,” she said.
Paul Ledford, 48, is coming into the Church through Immaculate Conception Parish, Ira Township.
“I’m ex-Navy, and have been halfway around the planet and back a couple of times, and most of my friends were Catholic,” he said about what led him to attend Mass.
Describing how that experience turned out, Ledford said, “It was kind of the spark that started a forest fire.”
