Although some groups had already begun their chanting of the "pabasa" as early as last week, this Philippine Lenten tradition generally begins today, Holy Monday and ends on Good Friday.Other parishes started the ‘pabasa’ as early as last Thursday.
Catholic churches in the Philippines, which has the largest Catholic population in Asia, will be the gathering places for Holy Week rites from sunrise to sundown beginning today.
Thousands of Catholics will visit churches to receive the sacrament of penance and offer prayers before the 14 Stations of the Cross, retracing the places Jesus took on His way to die by crucifixion on Mount Calvary, as part of their Lenten spiritual retreat. The visits to churches during the Holy Week will be highlighted by the "Visita Iglesia" on Maundy Thursday.
In many homes since yesterday, Palm Sunday, families began to abstain from eating meat, not as an obligation but as a form of sacrifice until Easter Sunday. In the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, there are only two days of abstinence in a year — Ash Wednesday and Good Friday — when Catholics are obliged to fast and abstain from eating meat.
Yesterday saw the faithful crowding churches carrying" palaspas" (palm fronds) and olive branches in memory of the first Palm Sunday when Jesus returned to Jerusalem from Bethany where He spent 40 days and nights in prayer, sacrifice, and meditation away from the city. Arriving in the city riding on a donkey, Jesus was welcomed by a cheering crowd waving palm fronds and olive branches.
The palm fronds and olive branches blessed yesterday are now in family altars and will be given to churches to be burned before Ash Wednesday next year. The ashes will be used by priests in crossing the foreheads of Catholics as a sign of their mortality.
It was on Holy Monday during Biblical times when anxiety began to trouble Jesus’ 12 apostles amid wild speculations of their Master’s impending arrest by Roman authorities instigated by Jewish religious leaders reacting to his acceptance by many people as the Son of God, the promised Messiah.
Thousands of Jews had arrived in Jerusalem in preparation for the Paschal Feast, Israel’s greatest festival to mark the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt.
Jesus and his 12 Apostles were to celebrate the Passover Meal on the upper level of the house of Nicodemus, a friend of Jesus. That celebration that took place on Thursday of that first Holy Week was to come down to future generations as the Last Supper, to be followed by Jesus’s crucifixion and death on Friday, and his resurrection on Sunday.
Meditate on Christ’s passion000
Catholic Church leaders urged the faithful to spend their Holy Week, which started yesterday, Palm Sunday, by meditating on the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Archbishops Fernando Capalla and Oscar Cruz said it is only but proper for Christians to spend some time with the Lord this week as a sign of gratitude for giving up His life for humanity’s redemption from sin.
"We need to be moved once more to express our thankfulness for the supreme offering made for our ransom from death," Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, president of the Catholic Bishops of the Philipppines, said.
Capalla added that the faithful must not only accompany the Lord on His way to the cross but also even in His resurrection.
"Jesus urges us to look beyond death and focus our Christian goal of our own glorious resurrection of the body. He also reminds us to our commitment to protect the sanctity of life," he said.
"We, therefore, urge the Filipino people to renew their faith in the crucified and risen Lord. It is our prayer that the younger generations be taught the continuing love of God for us as shown by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross". he added.
Lingayen-Dagupan (Pangasinan) Arcbishop Oscar Cruz, on the other hand, sees this week’s observance as an opportunity for the faithful to repent for their sins.
"We pause to think and repent for the sinful things we have done and the virtuous things we failed to do. We pause to reflect that life is but a loan from God who, in due time, will take it back. We pause to pray for our families, our communities, our country," he said.
By doing these things, he said, we make this week truly a holy one.
