Palm Sunday :: 2008 A

Palm Sunday 03-16-08 Prepared by Fr. Peter Girard, OP

Scripture Readings Procession Matthew 21:1-11 First Isaiah 50:4-7 Second Philippians 2:6-11 Gospel Matthew 26:14 - 27:66

1. Subject Matter •

On Palm Sunday, the Lord enters through Jerusalem’s eastern Gate of Mercy, identifying Him as the Messiah who would raise the dead to everlasting life.

2. Exegetical Notes •

The gate through which the Lord passed on Palm Sunday is the Sha'ar Harachamim, or the Gate of Mercy, also known as the Golden Gate. It is the oldest surviving gate of the old city’s walls, remnants of which come from the 6th century BC (cf. Neh.3:29) and added to by Justinian I around 520AD. It is an immense, double-arched gate with a supporting column coming down the middle.

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The Gate of Mercy is located in the middle of the eastern side of the Temple Mount area and the only visible entrance to the city of Jerusalem from the east, facing the Mount of Olives. So it is on the opposite side of the Temple area from what we now call the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall. After the completion of Second Temple (completed by Herod the Great in 19BC), the Sha'ar Harachamim was the main entrance used by the Jews as they entered the Temple area for feasts.

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During the era of the Second Temple, it was widely held that the Messiah would arrive passing through the Sha'ar Harachamim in order to resurrect the souls of the dead. To this end, a Jewish cemetery was located not to far from the gate near the Mount of Olives.

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According to the prophecy of Zechariah, the Messiah would arrive into the city riding on a donkey: "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zech.9:9).

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According to the prophecy of Ezekiel, the Gate of Mercy would remain “shut” until the Messiah would open it: “Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces the east and it was shut. Then He said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it shall remain shut. Only the Prince may sit in it…” (cf. Ez.44:1-3).

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According to John’s Gospel, the triumphal entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem through the Gate of Mercy takes place shortly after the raising of Lazarus, further indicating His role as the Messiah who would raise the souls of the dead (cf.Jn.12:12-15).

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The Gate of Mercy was sealed off following the Islamic invasion of the Byzantine Empire in 637AD in coordination with the construction of the Dome of the Rock (685-691AD). As a concession during the Crusades, the Caliphate did allow the gate to be opened briefly on Palm Sunday and the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross annually. However, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Sha'ar Harachamim permanently in 1541AD, allegedly to prevent the Jewish Messiah's entrance. In fact, Muslims later built a cemetery in front of the gate in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through, since he is a Kohen. The Sha'ar Harachamim remains sealed and guarded to this day.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church •

559 How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of "his father David."308 Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters his City "riding on an ass."309 Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth.310 And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God's poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds.311 Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord,"312 is taken up by the Church in the "Sanctus" of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord's Passover.

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560 Jesus' entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom that the King-Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm Sunday that the Church's liturgy solemnly opens Holy Week.

Notes 308. Lk 1:32; cf. Mt 21:1-11; Jn 6:15. 309. Ps 24:7-10; Zech 9:9. 310. Cf. Jn 18:37. 311. Cf. Mt 21:15-16; cf. Ps 8:3; Lk 19:38; 2:14. 312. Cf. Ps 118:26.

4. Patristic Commentary and Other Authorities •

St. Andrew of Crete (650-740): “So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel” (cf. St. Andrew of Crete, Oratio 9 (Homily for Palm Sunday).

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005): “The liturgy invites us to climb towards Jerusalem with Jesus, hailed by the young Jews. In a little while he "will have to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead" (Lk24:46). St Paul has reminded us that Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil 2:7) to obtain for us the grace of divine sonship. From him springs the true spring of peace and joy for each one of us! Here is the secret of the Easter joy that is born from the hardship of the Passion… The One you have chosen as Teacher is not a merchant of deceptions, not a powerful one of this world, not a ready and skilled debater. You know who it is you have chosen to follow: the Crucified is risen! The Crucified is risen! Christ died for you, Christ rose for you. The Church assures you that you will not be disillusioned. Indeed, no one else other than he can give you that love, peace, and eternal life for which your heart so deeply yearns.” (cf. Pope John Paul II, Homily for Palm Sunday, Vatican City, 2002).

6. Quotations from Pope Benedict XVI Concerning the meaning of following behind Jesus in the Palm Sunday procession: •

“It is also evident what the following means and what its true essence is for us: It has to do with an interior change of life. It demands that I no longer be closed in considering my selfrealization as the principal purpose of my life. It demands that I give myself freely to an Other -- for truth, for love, for God who, in Jesus Christ, precedes me and points out the way. What we are talking about here is the fundamental decision to no longer consider utility and gain, career and success as the ultimate goal of life, but to recognize truth and love instead as the authentic criteria. We are talking about the choice between living for myself and giving myself -- for what is greater. And let us understand that truth and love are not abstract values; in Jesus Christ they have become a person. Following him, I enter into the service of truth and love. Losing myself, I find myself” (cf. Homily for Palm Sunday, 2007).

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“That heart is pure that does not pretend and does not sully itself with lies and hypocrisy. A heart that remains transparent like water rises up, for it does not know duplicity. That heart is pure that does not weary itself with the drunkenness of pleasure; a heart whose love is true and not only a passion of the moment. Innocent hands and a pure heart: If we walk with Jesus, we will ascend and find purification that carry us truly to that height for which man is destined: friendship with God himself” (cf. Homily for Palm Sunday, 2007).

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“Psalm 24 that speaks of the ascent ends with an entrance liturgy before the temple gate: "Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter." In the old liturgy of Palm Sunday, the priest, once he arrived at the church doors, knocked loudly with the staff of the cross at the closed doors, which were then opened. It was a beautiful image of Jesus himself who, with the wood of the cross, with the power of his love which he gives, knocked from the side of the world on God's door; from the side of a world that was unable to find access to God. With the cross, Jesus opens wide the door of God, the door between God and men. Now it is open” (cf. Homily for Palm Sunday, 2007).

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“Christian worship, for its part, regards the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem as final and as theological necessity. Its place has been taken by the universal Temple of the Risen Christ, whose outstretched arms on the Cross span the world, in order to draw all men into the embrace of eternal love. The New Temple already exists, and so does the new, definitive sacrifice: the humanity of Christ opened up in His Cross and Resurrection” (cf. Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp.48-49).

7. Other Considerations •

Pope Pius XI chose Palm Sunday of 1937 to have his unpublished encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge (“With Deep Anxiety”) read from every pulpit in Germany. In this harshest of critiques against Hitler’s regime, we see the Holy See explaining how the dissociation of the deposit of faith from moral tenets leads to societal decline, racism and war. Contributing writers of this encyclical were Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich and even more importantly Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII). The language of the Palm Sunday encyclical was explicit: Hitler was deceiving the Germans and the international community, stating that the Nazi leader was perfidious, untrustworthy, dangerous and determined to replace Christ as King.

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St Catherine of Siena was born on March 25, 1347, which in that year was also Palm Sunday.

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One might consider how our Catholic tradition of interpreting the Scriptures according to the four senses protects us from a literalist interpretation of prophecy. A sizeable number of Jews, Muslims and fundamentalist and evangelical Christians believe that the Parousia cannot take place until the present-day Gate of Mercy is physically unsealed and restored as an entrance to the Jewish Temple. This is why many Orthodox Jews look forward to the gate’s restoration, Muslims strictly maintain its closure and some Christians support the Jewish juridical reclamation of the Temple Mount area. For Catholics who interpret the Scriptures in all of it senses, however, the Gate of Mercy was opened in the wounded side of

Christ: there is no need for the ancient Sha'ar Harachamim to be restored. The stone Gate of Mercy was built in order to prefigured the true passageway of Divine Mercy: the pierced side of Christ!

Recommended Resources Benedict XVI, Homily for Palm Sunday, Vatican City, 2007. Benedict XVI (as Joseph Ratzinger). The Spirit of the Liturgy, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000. John Paul II, Homily for Palm Sunday, Vatican City, 2002.