Homily for Palm Sunday
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
Today one sister, to whom I did not allow to come to the church because of illness, said to me: “Today the service is so good.”
There is no bad service. All are good, for no service is ever repeated; each is unique. True, in our time we ourselves often make them similar to one another, omitting certain parts and inserting entirely inappropriate concert-style hymns.
What, then, does today’s divine service give us? Today we have come not only to stand with candles and willow branches. We have come to meet the Lord — but not as the Jewish children met Him, who cried out to Him: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest” (Matt. 21:9). For we know what they did not know.
The Lord calls us not so that we might give Him the branches of budding trees which we hold in our hands, or our garments, as the Jews did. He calls us to give Him other garments and other branches.
The Lord, having performed the raising of Lazarus, goes to Jerusalem, and the first to meet Him are those who are pure in heart, those for whom the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared. Only he who has humbled himself like a child will enter it.
“Let the children come to Me,” says the Lord (cf. Matt. 10:14), and the children were the first to feel His love for them and sing to Him “Hosanna.” And after them the people, inflamed by the voices of the children — the very people among whom He performed miracles, casting out demons, cleansing lepers. This same people remembers all this and, in a burst of joy, greets Him, cuts branches and spreads them along His path, and those who cannot cut branches lay down their garments.
But the Lord, when He saw Jerusalem, toward which He was going, wept over it, saying: “Oh, that you also, at least in this your day, knew the things that make for your peace!” (Luke 19:42).
The Lord wept — He wept because they did not recognize the time of His visitation. He wept for the people of the Old Testament, who, although they themselves proclaimed the Messiah and now sang “Hosanna,” were not enlightened by the Light and, in their pride, could not receive that Light which enlightens every man.
How, then, shall we meet the Lord — we who know why He is going to Jerusalem? “The Lord comes to His voluntary Passion.” This they did not know, but we now know. And we have gathered today not to meet Him as a King triumphantly entering Jerusalem, but as One going to the Cross.
“Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us, and taking up Your Cross, we all say: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” This is our “Hosanna”; this is how we must glorify Him today. And how do we?
We think that we have gathered to sing to Him like the children: “And we, like children bearing the sign of victory, cry out to You, the Conqueror of death”…
But, brothers and sisters, many of us cannot even sing thus; many even now are in a state far removed from that of the Jewish children.
And the holy Church, through the divine services, calls us not to this, but to something else; and the troparion which we scarcely hear, and which is often not sung, reveals our true condition:
“Having been buried with You through baptism, O Christ our God, we have been made worthy of immortal life by Your Resurrection; and singing, we cry: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”
Behold, we — the people of the New Testament — are buried with You. And it is not without reason that those who were in church this morning heard, instead of the Trisagion: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Therefore, it was customary at this time to perform the baptism of adults, so that they might meet Christ having been made worthy through baptism.
We all are buried with Christ and are made worthy of eternal life by His Resurrection. And not only do we know that it should be so, but many have also felt that it is so.
When the holy Church in the last days of Great Lent calls us to worship the coming Lord — calls us who have been cleansed from sin, who have come with candles and branches — we must understand Whom we are meeting and what we must give Him.
At baptism we receive a garment — His garment — and then we have branches of virtues, for the soul bears the fruit of virtues, and therefore the holy Church sings:
“Let us bring branches of virtues, brethren, to Christ God, who comes for our sake to suffer willingly in the flesh”…
Where, then, are our virtues, or, as the Holy Fathers say, our likeness to God?
Many of us do not have these branches — but they must be there, for we must not only restore in ourselves the image of God, but also labor toward likeness. Each must have — and does have — the garment of baptism: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” This is the garment of incorruption, the garment of Christ; it is defiled by us, but it can also be cleansed by us in the Mystery of Repentance and Holy Communion.
Thus, we have gathered today to accompany the Lord to His Passion, for He does not go to be enthroned, as the Jewish children thought, but goes “to be slain and to be given as food to the faithful.”
And now we must stand, having purified the soul — “having purified the mind,” as is sung in the troparion of Alexios the Man of God. And this depends on how we have spent the holy Forty Days.
Where are our branches, where are our garments, which we should have renewed through repentance and communion of the Body of Christ? Where is our life in the Lord?
Now each of us must give the Lord not the branches of palms, not these material old garments, which, like the garment of the baptized, are only a symbol.
But can we give Him even the garment of Adam — give that garment which He gave us?
We have spent the holy Forty Days poorly; and can we now partake in this joy? For the Church calls us to joy — to be crucified with the Lord in joy and to die with Him.
It is not too late yet — it is not too late to go. The Lord comes to His voluntary Passion. And the time will come when the holy Church will lead us from the fig tree, which withered because it bore no fruit, to the Secret Supper, to the betrayal in Gethsemane, to Pilate and Herod, then to Golgotha, and finally will call us to participate in the burial together with Joseph and Nicodemos.
The candles which we hold together with the branches tell us that we must keep the lamps of faith burning. That is why those being baptized stand with candles not only during the mystery, but also before and throughout the entire liturgy.
Therefore, as we now meet the Lord, let us keep our lamps burning; let us bring to Him our incorruptible garments, God-woven; and then we, the people of the New Testament, ought not only to meet the Lord with joy and sing together with the children, but also to bring Him the fruits of our souls — the branches of virtues.
This is what today’s feast teaches us; this is what it means to live with the holy Church and to meet the Lord going to His Passion; this is what it means:
“Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us, and taking up Your Cross we say: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.