By INSIDER NEWS DESK

VATICAN CITY -- The faithful gathered in their thousands to hear the Pope’s homily on Palm Sunday, “the great doorway leading into Holy Week.”

 In celebration of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, it is tradition in Rome for a procession of senior clergymen carrying palms or olive tree branches to parade around St Peter’s Square before the Pope’s address. Members of the crowd generally also carry palm leaves or other rushes, symbolising the palms and coats that, according to the gospels, were laid before the dusty path of Jesus’ donkey as he entered the city of Jerusalem.

 But Pope Benedict XVI cited Church Father St Andrew Bishop of Crete in saying that the real gesture is not in laying “coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye for only a few brief hours,” but the spreading of ourselves before Christ. “So let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet.”

 “In this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so great a gift, that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer, our entering into a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died and rose for us.”

 Dr. Robert Moynihan founder and editor in chief of Inside the Vatican magazine, said the 84 year old pope, “seemed serene, and strong, despite just having returned from a gruelling, 6-day trip to Mexico and Cuba.”

 His message was one of harmony, saying that "in the light of Christ, humanity sees itself profoundly united.”

 The day preceding the start of Holy Week saw the Cuban government announce its first ever national holiday on Good Friday. On his visit, the Pope specifically asked for this to be so, though it not yet clear whether the holiday will be recognised in future years.

 Dr. Moynihan said this shows that at least in some sense, “Benedict's call for greater freedom for the Cuban people, freedom of religion but also freedom in general, was heard by the Cuban regime, and so the trip has already brought forth significant fruit. This allows hopes that more fruits may yet come from the Pope's historic visit.”

 Christmas became a holiday in Cuba after Pope John Paul II's 1998 visit to the country.