Large Crowds on Palm Sunday at Christ the King
Much larger crowds than usual greeted all the presiders for all the Palm Sunday masses last April 9, including the Saturday April 8 anticipated masses. Fr. Ronald Plomillo presided over three Palm Sunday masses, Fr. Bong Tupino did two, and Fr. Serge Maniba, James Ferry, Fr. Evan Villanueva presided over at least one mass.
By Saturday April 8, palm vendors had already lined up Green Meadows Avenue selling various types of palms. Traffic had become difCicult since each Palm Sunday mass took over an hour. This was because
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion was celebrated in two parts – the first part was the commemoration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem which included the Blessing of Palms and the Gospel reading of the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. Even with the EMHCs and deacons participating in the blessing of the palms, it still took quite a while to cover all the areas of the main church.
The second part of the liturgical celebration on this special day was the mass proper, highlighted by the Gospel reading according to Matthew which was the narrative and dramatization of the Passion of the Lord. In the dramatization, the 2nd reader, if a male, or an EMHC took on the role of Pilate, the presider took on Christ’s role, and the commentator read the storyline as narrator. The congregation was encouraged to take on the role of the Jewish ‘crowd’ and join the choir. So there were two Gospel readings, the second being the long dramatization, and two homilies. In addition, most of the presiders accommodated the late arrivals by having another blessing of palms at the end of the mass.
For the 7:30 am mass, Fr. Bong Tupino blessed the palms at the parking lot in front of the Divine Mercy Chapel. At the forefront of the palm waving were this year’s twelve apostles. This was followed by the procession to the main church where the mass was held. For all the other masses that followed, the blessing of palms was held inside the main church.
