of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It's my great
joy to greet you on this wonderful feast day.
We've gathered together. What a wonderful assembly
this is. And we hold our palm branches as a sign
of our fidelity to Christ. And not like Judas,
second -guessing the Lord. Well, Lord, you shouldn't
allow her to do that. We need that money. No,
we follow the Lord wherever he goes. Sometimes
it doesn't make sense to us. But we're his joyful
disciples. That's really what I want to speak
about today. But let's look at what the Gospel
said. The first part of the Gospel. We see this
plot that's developing and Judas' own hesitation
and planning to be part of that plot. And then
we hear about the procession and the people gathering
and the children gathering up in the trees. There
you can see that fresco. And we have that tradition
here too as our procession goes around. But kids,
as you get older, remember that's just an olive
tree. If you're big... that branch might come
off, so be careful. Sacred history of the Old
Testament tells us that the last time someone
of significance rode an ass into Jerusalem, it
was the coronation day of King Solomon, David's
son. The people of Jerusalem, at the time of
Jesus, knew this history. They knew their scripture,
and they were eager and pleased to see Jesus
fulfilling this prophecy that the Savior, the
Messiah, would come seated on the foal of an
ass. He would be humble and meek. Obviously,
when he had raised the dead man Lazarus from
the dead after four days in the tomb, the Lord
demonstrated that he is the resurrection and
the life. He who believes in me, he said, though
he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives
and believes in me shall never die. What an interesting
saying. But we know it's true from our own baptism.
We're alive in Christ and we shall not die. We
shall never be separated from God. Word had quickly
spread about Lazarus' raising and Jesus the miracle
worker. There had been no king in Israel. Anybody
know how long it had been since King Zedekiah?
In 598 BC. the time of the Babylonian exile and
destruction. So this was a momentous day, and
it was just before the Feast of Passover, as
we know, a week before people were gathering.
By this time, there were not just hundreds of
thousands of people that had come to Jerusalem.
There were perhaps over a million that were coming
for the feast. St. John's Gospel also tells us,
we heard this, that the chief priest said that
if they let Jesus receive all this adulation,
this gathering of people shouting, Hosanna, the
King of Israel, everyone will believe in him.
And the Romans, quote from one of the priests,
will come and take away our place and our nation.
We're afraid of that sometimes with Jesus, aren't
we? That he's going to take away something from
us. But the Lord doesn't need to enslave anyone.
He wants friends. He wants love. Christ weeps,
just like yesterday. He weeps once more. Now
as he drew near, says St. Luke, he saw the city.
and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even
you, especially in this your day, the things
that make for your peace, but now they are hidden
from your eyes, and you will be destroyed. The
Romans would do that. So the crowds on Palm Sunday
could not know what we know now about Jesus.
Their expectations were very far off about what
they expected him to do. Bread and circuses,
no, not really, but certainly worldly power and
religious dominance. But our king is humble.
He doesn't need to acquire power from anyone.
He's riding on an ass. And he knows he's riding
on the way to the death of a criminal. He's riding,
may appear that way, he's riding actually on
his way to conquer death and to conquer sin.
So let's ask ourselves, brothers and sisters,
what are the expectations of a citizen of the
kingdom of heaven, this kind of king, this humble
king? What do we expect of this king? Isn't it
true? Yes, we struggle. We struggle to live our
Christian life. And we want Christ to fulfill
our needs, yes. And, in fact, Jesus Christ does
tell us in the Sermon on the Mount, why are you
anxious for all of these things? Your Heavenly
Father knows you need them. Seek first the kingdom
of God and all things you need will be given.
We're to be his ambassadors. We're to be his
witnesses. That's our task. Works of mercy. We're
asking God all the time to do things to help
us, to help this world. But it's our task to
do some of those things. It's our task to be
witnesses of his love. When we're confronted
by life's sorrow, says the elder Emilianos from
this book I was reading the other night after
the pre -sanctified, when we're confronted by
pain, by obstacles, by failures and all the tempests
of life, how do we deal with God? Or do we bow
our head and praise him? Life is filled with
pain and sorrow. There has never been a place,
there is not now, and there will never be on
the planet Earth a time without pain, without
sorrow, without suffering, without sin. It is
our task, brothers and sisters, to become like
Christ by being joined to him. If this is just
a religious assembly, then let's go home now.
If this is just joyful singing for the sake of
aesthetics, then let's just forget it. Our task
is to be united to our Savior. Elder Milenos
goes on to say this. All of us face difficult
moments when we're tempted to say that God is
to blame or that he's forgotten me. And who knows?
We say, maybe there is no God, but if God does
exist, he's cruel. Why does he torment me like
this? While unbelievers rejoice, and so on and
so on. But in these difficult moments, let us
say, glory to thee, O God. With these words,
you show that you are a witness for Christ, and
that you accept with joy. the struggle and the
pain that you encounter. The witness in the struggle
against doubts, against hesitation, against imagining,
against sin. And we become not examples, but
reflections of our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we can say with St. Paul, as he sat
in a prison, awaiting for an eventual execution,
you heard this this morning, have no anxiety
about anything. He had no illusions about the
suffering and the pain that he would face. But
he said that Christ's grace was more powerful
than his weakness. And the foundation of the
peace that St. Paul describes was not in hopes
of a nation defeating its opponents with power
of the world, but simply in the confession, did
you hear it today? Be not anxious about anything.
The Lord is at hand. Christ is coming. Be anxious
for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. Let your petitions be known
to God. And the peace of God which surpasses
all understanding will guard your hearts and
your minds in Christ Jesus. We have desire, and
it's right, for goodness, for justice, for the
end of pain and sorrow and wickedness. We have
that desire, and that is right that we have that.
And we should work towards... ending those terrible
things and those sinful things, first in ourself,
knowing that the Lord himself will come in glory
and wipe every tear from every eye, and sin and
death and the devil will be cast into the lake
of fire, which means they won't exist anymore.
Let me end with this short... This short excerpt
from a sermon of St. Photius the Great, a 9th
century saint. He gave this sermon on the Feast
of Palms. Hosanna, he says. Blessed is he that
comes to reach out his arms on the cross and
to gather all peoples to himself. Blessed is
he that comes to make Hades a prisoner. to release
Adam from his bonds, to raise him from his fall.
Blessed is he that comes to destroy the power
of tyranny and to bestow liberty on them that
are sore distressed. Blessed is he that comes
to empty out the storehouses of Hades and to
fill the heavenly mansions with the throng of
the saved. Blessed is he that comes to offer
himself as a sacrifice for our sake. to expiate
all our sins, to reconcile us with the Father.
Blessed is he, Hosanna, that comes to suppress
death, to inaugurate our resurrection, to free
us from servitude, to bestow on us adoption as
his children. For it is thine own will, O Creator,
to have given us existence and fashioned us out
of nothing. And after we had fallen and been
crushed, to have raised us up again, and restored
us. And to thee do we send up praise and thanksgiving
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one in essence, life -giving, all -powerful Trinity,
now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. And
we all say, Hosanna!