Today
we celebrate Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We heard in our first
Gospel about the procession that Jesus got up and how the people shouted: Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jesus
knew quite well what he was doing. He knew the authorities would not welcome
him as they ought. He knew what was to come—all the events so eloquently
described by St Mark in the Passion Reading we have just heard. It was all
inevitable. Or rather, with Jesus’ co-operation it was all inevitable.
And so
he gets up his own procession—with his disciples dusty from the road, and with
the purloined colt, and with the common people.
There is
a bit of an echo here with recent events—with Pope John Paul on his recent
pilgrimage of reconciliation to Jerusalem. So many times the Pope expressed the
wish to visit Jerusalem and it wasn’t possible. All the advisers said the
security risk was too great and the political situation too delicate.
But this
year of all years the Pope was determined to go and would not take no for an
answer. And he went. Actually, if you think about it, how could he not have
gone? How could the spiritual leader of a billion Catholics not have gone to
kiss the Holy Sepulchre in this Great Jubilee Year? How could anyone have prevented
him?
The Pope
went and it was a truly remarkable journey. It went far better than anyone
expected and yet the Pope surely knew it would turn out like that. Never forget
that our Holy Father was once an actor and he understands the theatre and the
importance of gesture. He is our player on the world stage and the part that he
plays is that of Christ’s representative here on earth.
So he
had to go to Jerusalem this year—even if it meant martyrdom at the hands of
some fanatic.
And
Jesus had to enter Jerusalem although he certainly knew what was to happen. And
he enters the Holy City with his raggle-taggle procession to place himself in
Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. Knowing full well that this was
to be a real Passover for him. He was to be the sacrificial lamb, slain for the
sins of the world.
It was
to be a Passover such as had never been seen before, a passing over from death
to new life for all of humanity.
With
this Eucharist we now begin Holy Week. We follow in the liturgy the steps Jesus
took from Mount of Olives to Mount Calvary to the Holy Sepulchre. We suffer
with him, we die to sin and rise with him to new life.
This is
a week of story, and more than this for it is truly a week of glory.