Palm Sunday marks start of Holy Week

As Palm Sunday today ushers in the Holy Week, the Catholic Church urged the faithful to involve themselves in programs that would help the poor, whose needs require an immediate response, as a way of performing a sacrifice for Lent.

In a pastoral letter for Caritas, a Catholic charity, jointly written by Auxiliary Bishops of Manila Socrates Villegas and Teodoro Buhain, Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado, and Novaliches Bishop Teodoro Bacani, they challenged Filipinos to translate their faith into action by expressing concern and solidarity with "the least, the last, and the lost."

"In past few weeks, we have been glued to out TV sets and have been reading page after page on what is happening to the war in Iraq. But what about the war right outside our doorsteps? We have a war against poverty and social injustice, and man’s apathy to the plight of the people who wallow in it everyday," the letter said.

The priests encouraged Filipinos to be involved in parish social services and development by being a Caritas volunteer and assisting in the delivery of programs and services to poor communities.

They also asked the Catholic faithful to "give generously to the poor" and donate all that was saved during fasting to Caritas.

"Your gifts should not be a result of your excess but must come from substance. Christ gave himself up for us by dying on the cross," the letter said.

The money collected during today’s masses will go to Caritas to fund scholarship grants and residential provisions for poor and abused children, health missions, job placement centers, crisis intervention, prison ministry, AIDS prevention and advocacy projects.

Today’s observance of Palm Sunday is also the launching of Caritas Manila’s golden jubilee celebration.

The Catholic Church will also make the dream of a seven-year-old boy suffering from leukemia come true.

The EDSA Shrine, together with the Make-A-Wish Foundation Philippines, will allow Tanggol Manalili to be a priest for a day and celebrate mass with Villegas at 4:30 p.m.

The boy will wear the vestments of a priest during the mass and stay at the altar with Villegas.

Filipino Catholics will mark the start of the Holy Week today with a church tradition that began many centuries ago — the procession of palm fronds held in memory of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

The tradition started in Jerusalem in the fourth century, on the very spot where the event took place. Passages from the gospel according to St. Matthew — which tells the story of Jesus’ welcome into the holy city — were read prior to the reenactment.

After the gospel is read, a bishop, mounted on an ass, would then ride up to the Church of the Resurrection on the Mount of Olives. He would be surrounded by crowds of people bearing palm fronds and singing hymns and antiphons.

The Church of Rome adopted this practice in the ninth century and added another part to this church ritual: the blessing of palm fronds by the officiating priest.

This ritual also recalls other events in the Bible — Israel’s entry into the Promised Land, the entry of the Ark into Jerusalem, which was captured by King David, and the return of David to Jerusalem.

In today’s church rites, the priest will be garbed either in a red cope, or in a red stole and alb without a chasuble, when he blesses the branches of palm, olive or other trees that are used in the procession.

At the mass following the procession of palms, the priest and his ministers will put on violet vestments — the color of Lent.

Today’s mass will be predominated by accounts of suffering of Jesus Christ — from his agony at the garden of Gethsemane, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, and his death and burial.

Meanwhile, President Arroyo called on Filipinos to offer prayers in thanksgiving that the Philippines was spared the ill effects of the war in Iraq and the threat of an epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases.

"Once again, events have shown that all things work for the good of those who have a covenant with the Lord," she said. "So this Holy Week, we remember the goodness that our Lord Almighty continues to shower our nation and let us thank Him for all these blessing."

Mrs. Arroyo, a devout Catholic, said she has been in deep prayer since the start of the crisis in the Middle East, seeking guidance in leading the Philippines during those critical times.

"We are prone to anxiety but we can quickly recover. Like other crises we went through, we have succeeded and we have prevailed!" she said.

The President said "all of these come from our never-surrender determination and deep (faith that) our Lord Almighty will not abandon us."

Though she did not mention it, Mrs. Arroyo was apparently still smarting from the plunge in her popularity ratings when she got a negative 14 percent net approval rating in the opinion survey taken by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from March 10 to 25 — the weeks before the United States-led coalition forces launched the war against Iraq.

"During those times, the surveys were not in favor (of the decisions) of the presidency. Those were the times I just opted to pray to God to ease the fears and difficulties of our people while I am doing all my best to overcome the challenges that come our way," the President said.

"God did not deny our prayers," she said.

The Chief Executive expressed satisfaction that the Philippines has successfully hurdled the Middle East crisis. She cited the decline in the prices of gasoline in the domestic market and the recovery of the peso.

Mrs. Arroyo was particularly thankful that no Filipino overseas worker in the Middle East was hurt or killed during the three-week war in Iraq.

Had not a "probable" SARS case involving a 64-year-old male foreigner — who might have contracted the virus in Hong Kong and later developed the symptoms when he came to the Philippines — broken into the news, the President said the country would already be on its way to normalcy.

"The apprehensions of our countrymen have been greatly reduced. If not for the one case of SARS that entered our country — but that patient was already cured — we could safely say our lives have gone back to normal," she said.

The President also said that there were no more anti-war demonstrations in the streets.

"These events are the latest proofs of how resilient and stable we are in facing the challenges that come into our lives," she said.

The Chief Executive reiterated the commitment of the Philippines to the "coalition of the willing" to help in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

"We are ready to send out peacekeeping forces and humanitarian workers to help the Iraqis stand up anew and enrich their newly restored democracy," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo urged Filipinos to "pray that our Iraqi brothers and sisters would attain their freedom and prosperity and may they finally live in (a) democracy that their people deserve."

The President is set to join the Palm Sunday eucharistic celebration of the El Shaddai movement to be celebrated by Bishop Jesse Mercado at the Amvel Business Park in Parañaque City.

Sen. Teresa Aquino -Oreta, for her part, called on all Filipinos to pray for lasting peace and the healing of wounds inflicted by "weapons of conflict and the anger of war."

"I call on our countrymen to ponder the events of the past weeks and pray fervently for a peaceful resolution of all conflicts here in our country and in other parts of the globe. With faith in the almighty God, we are hopeful that warring nations and hostile groups can cast aside their anger and look at peace as a more favorable option," Oreta said in a statement.

She also urged Filipinos to learn their lessons from the damage inflicted by war so they could finally cast aside their differences and collectively focus their efforts on how they could best work together to help the government address the daily challenges facing the country.

"After pondering the grim reality of the destruction that conflict and hostilities can bring, we Filipinos should realize that instead of promoting discord among ourselves. We should shift our energies to a charting to a vibrant future for our children and the nation," Oreta said. — Katherine Adraneda, Felix delos Santos, Marichu Villanueva