Menu

ARE YOU FOR CHRIST OR THE WORLD? QUIAPO CHURCH CELEBRATES PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

Nov. 30, 2024 04:37 PM

Rev. Fr. Rufino C. Sescon Jr., rector and parish priest, of the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Jesus Nazareno presided this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion held at the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Jesus Nazareno during the 5:00 A.M. mass on March 24, 2024.

“Are you for Christ or against Him? Do you choose Christ or others?”  Rev. Fr. Sescon Jr. said that the ‘The Holy Week is an opportunity to pass on to others the horrendous events of Jesus so that we, like the crowd who had chosen then, will also decide if are we for Christ or not’.

He also stated that sometimes we choose sin – the evilness against goodness and truth. Just like how the crowd then, who had clamored his crucifixion and death on that first Good Friday, days after cheering ‘Hosanna in the highest’ during the first Palm Sunday of his triumphant entry to Jerusalem. It was then the people commemorated the liberation from slavery in Egypt by Moses (from the Old Testament), which they associated with Jesus as the new long-awaited Messiah.

With a little symbolical trivia to share, Fr. Sescon Jr. mentioned that the passage, which Jesus had entered at Jerusalem was dubbed as the “passageway of the East”, where it was prophesized that the Messiah would enter the city. During His execution day, Jesus’ had passed by where those (well-taken care) sheep from Bethlehem would be killed and offered in the temple. Jesus, referred to as the Lamb of the God, had passed by that same road to be offered for the sins and bring about mankind’s redemption with the Father.

At the end of his homily, Rev. Fr. Sescon Jr. described that ‘the real Messiah is the lowliest, simplest, most loving, most vulnerable and the one who gave up His life just like the sheep’. Also, he added, “If we choose Jesus, we also choose His path”.

Prior to this mass, a procession commenced at 4:00 A.M. along the stretch of Carriedo St. passing by Plaza San Juan and entering Plaza Miranda in reenactment of the triumphant entry of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the name of David!

– Kidanzac A. Tallada | ADRM & EIAM