The last week of
Jesus' life was crammed with events, as we follow him from his
glorious entry into Jerusalem on Sunday until his death on
Friday. In the days in between, he preached, taught, presided
over the Passover supper, stood trial, and was condemned to
death. This week we call Holy Week. According to the Canonical
Gospels, before entering Jerusalem, Jesus was staying at
Bethany, and the Gospel of John adds that he had dinner with
Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha. While there, Jesus is
described by the Synoptic Gospels as sending two unnamed
disciples to Jerusalem, in order to retrieve a colt that had
been tied up but never been rode, and to say, if questioned,
that the colt was needed but will be returned in a short period
of time. The Synoptics and John state that Jesus knew people in
the area, such as Simon the Leper, and so it could be argued
that the presence of the colt had already been organised by
Jesus' associates. The Gospel of John, however, merely says that
Jesus found the colt wandering in Bethany.
Both John and the Synoptics state that Jesus then rode the colt
(or in Matthew the colt and its mother) into Jerusalem, with the
Synoptics adding that the disciples had first put their cloaks
on it, so as to make it more comfortable. The Gospels go on to
describe how Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and how the people there
lay down their cloaks in front of him, and also lay down small
branches of trees. The people are also described as singing part
of Psalm 118 - ...Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh.
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David. ... (Psalms
118:25-26). Where this entry is supposed to have taken place is
unspecified; some scholars argue that the Golden Gate is the
likely location, since that was where it was believed the Jewish
messiah would enter Jerusalem; other scholars think that an
entrance to the south, which had stairs leading directly to the
Temple, would be more likely (Kilgallen 210).
Early
in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary,
His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus,
at Bethania. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus
expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction;
but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in
Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be
proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are
to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and
this in presence of the soldiers of Rome's emperor, and of the high
priests and pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their
eagles; the second, dumb with rage. The prophet Zachary had foretold
this triumph which the Son of Man was to receive a few days before His
Passion, and which had been prepared for Him from all eternity. 'Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Sion! Shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold thy king will come to thee; the Just and the Saviour. He is poor,
and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Jesus,
knowing that the hour has come for the fulfilment of this prophecy,
singles out two from the rest of His disciples, and bids them lead to
Him an ass and her colt, which they would find not far off. He has
reached Bethphage, on Mount Olivet. The two disciples lose no time in
executing the order given them by their divine Master; and the ass and
the colt are soon brought to the place where He stands.
The holy fathers have explained to us the mystery of these two animals.
The ass represents the Jewish people, which had been long under the yoke
of the Law; the colt, upon which, as the evangelist says, no man yet
hath sat, is a figure of the Gentile world, which no one had ever yet
brought into subjection. The future of these two peoples is to be
decided a few days hence: the Jews will be rejected, for having refused
to acknowledge Jesus as the Messias; the Gentiles will take their place,
to be adopted as God's people, and become docile and faithful. The first
is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance
from the solemnity used by the Church in this saved rite. One would
suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up
in honour of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle,
Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual,
preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but, after the triple
Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! the Church suspends these sacrificial
formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms.
The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of
instruction and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the
incensation, impart a virtue to these branches which elevates them to
the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of
our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful
should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during
the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an
outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God's watchful
love. It is scarcely necessary to tell our reader that the palms or
olive branches, thus blessed, are carried in memory of those wherewith
the people of Jerusalem strewed the road, as our Saviour made His
triumphant entry; but a word on the antiquity of our ceremony will not
be superfluous. It began very early in the east. It is probable that, as
far as Jerusalem itself is concerned, the custom was established
immediately after the ages of persecution. St. Cyril, who was bishop of
that city in the fourth century, tells us that the palmtree, from which
the people cut the branches when they went out to meet our Saviour, was
still to be seen in the vale of Cedron. Such a circumstance would
naturally suggest an annual commemoration of the great event.
In the following century, we find this ceremony established, not only in
the churches of the east, but also in the monasteries of Egypt and
Syria. At the beginning of Lent, many of the holy monks obtained
permission from their abbots to retire into the desert, that they might
spend the sacred season in strict seclusion; but they were obliged to
return to their monasteries for Palm Sunday, as we learn from the life
of Saint Euthymius, written by his disciple Cyril. In the west, the
introduction of this ceremony was more gradual; the first trace we find
of it is in the sacramentary of St. Gregory, that is, at the end of the
sixth, or the beginning of the seventh, century. When the faith had
penetrated into the north, it was not possible to have palms or olive
branches; they were supplied by branches from other trees. The beautiful
prayers used in the blessing, and based on the mysteries expressed by
the palm and olive trees, are still employed in the blessing of our
willow, box, or other branches; and rightly, for these represent the
symbolical ones which nature has denied us.
The second of today's ceremonies is the procession, which comes
immediately after the blessing of the palms. It represents our Saviour's
journey to Jerusalem, and His entry into the city. To make it the more
expressive, the branches that have just been blessed are held in the
hand during it. With the Jews, to hold a branch in one's hand was a sign
of joy. The divine law had sanctioned this practice, as we read in the
following passage from Leviticus, where God commands His people to keep
the feast of tabernacles: And you shall take to you, on the first day,
the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palmtrees, and boughs
of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before
the Lord your God. It was, therefore, to testify their delight at seeing
Jesus enter within their walls, that the inhabitants, even the little
children, of Jerusalem, went forth to meet Him with palms in their
hands. Let us, also, go before our King, singing our hosannas to Him as
the conqueror of death, and the liberator of His people..
