THEOLOGICAL CLUE

By shortening Passiontide from two weeks to one and shifting Passion Sunday from the Fifth to the Sixth Sunday in Lent, several significant liturgical changes have been made. First, the Sixth Sunday in Lent can no longer be Palm Sunday, as it could when the period of passion stretched over two weeks and Palm Sunday was in the middle of it; Palm Sunday has to be a part, really the beginning, of the liturgy of Passion Sunday. Second, there is an attempt to return to the earlier practice of reading the story of the Passion in its entirety on Passion Sunday and three other times (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Good Friday) during Holy Week; each evangelist told the Passion story from his perspective. Third, there is a focus on the mighty - redemptive - acts which God performed in Je…