57 — THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS

Palm Sunday

Presence of God. — O Jesus, I wish to follow You in Your triumph in order to follow You then even to Calvary.

Meditation

1 — Holy Week opens with the remembrance of the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which occurred precisely on the Sunday preceding His Passion. Jesus, who had always opposed every public manifestation, and who had fled when the people wished to make Him king (cf. Jn. 6, 15), today lets Himself be carried in triumph. Only now, that He is about to go to death, does He accept to be publicly acclaimed as Messiah, because precisely by dying on the cross He will be, in the fullest way, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the King, the Victor. He accepts to be recognized as King, but a King who will reign from the cross, who will triumph and conquer by means of the death of the cross. The same exultant crowd that today acclaims Him, in a few days, with imprecations, will lead Him to Calvary; and thus today’s triumph will give greater publicity and prominence to tomorrow’s Passion.

Jesus enters triumphantly into the holy city, but He enters to suffer, to die. Hence the double meaning of the procession of Palms: it is not only a question of accompanying Jesus in triumph, but of accompanying Him to the Passion, ready to share it with Him, seeking — according to the exhortation of St. Paul (Ep.: Phil. 2, 5-11) — to make His sentiments our own, sentiments of humility and total immolation that must lead us, like Him and with Him “even to death, and death on the cross”. The palms, the blessed olive branches that today the priest hands us, do not have only a meaning of festivity, but “designate the victory that Jesus is about to report over the prince of death” (MR.). They must therefore also designate our victory; we too must merit the palm of victory, first of all by conquering the evil that is in us, in our evil tendencies, and then the evil that is outside of us. Receiving the blessed palm we renew our promise of wishing to conquer with Jesus, and we do not forget that He conquered on the Cross.

2 — Jesus accepts to be carried in triumph, but how humble and meek He is in His triumph! He knows that in the midst of the osannant people His enemies are hidden who, with malignant insinuations, will succeed in converting those “hosannas” into “crucify hims”; He knows it and could impose Himself upon them with the power of His Divinity, He could unmask them publicly, frustrating their plans. But Jesus does not wish to conquer and reign with force, but with love, with sweetness; very to the purpose the Evangelist notes: “Tell the daughter of Zion: behold your king comes to you meek, riding on an ass” (Mt. 21, 5). And with the same meekness He, the Innocent One, the true King and Victor, will accept to appear as a guilty one, as one condemned and vanquished, as a mock king. But precisely thus, when He shall be raised upon the cross, He will draw all to Himself.

While the cortege proceeds festively, Jesus sees the panorama of Jerusalem profiled at His feet. And — relates St. Luke (19, 41-44) — “when He drew near to the city He looked upon it and wept over it, saying: ‘O if you also, and precisely on this day, knew what makes for your peace!... Your enemies will not leave in you stone upon stone, because you have not known the moment in which you have been visited’”. Jesus weeps over the obstinacy of the holy city, which, for not having recognized Him as Messiah, for not having welcomed His gospel, will be destroyed from its foundations. Jesus is true God, but He is also true man and, as such, vibrates with emotion and sorrow for the sad fate that Jerusalem has prepared for itself with its obstinate resistance to grace. He is about to go to the Passion and will die also for the salvation of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem will not be saved because it did not wish it, “because it has not known the moment in which it has been visited”. This is the history of so many souls that resist grace; this is the motive of the most profound and most intimate suffering of the most sweet Heart of Jesus. At least you, devout soul, give to the Lord the joy of seeing you fully profit by the merits of His most painful Passion, of all His Blood shed. When you resist the invitations of grace, you resist the Passion of Jesus and prevent it from being applied to you in all its fullness.

Colloquy

“O Jesus, I contemplate You in Your triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when, prescient of the crowd that was about to come to meet You, You mounted the ass and gave an example of admirable humility amidst the applause of the hurrying people that cut branches from the trees and carpeted the road with garments. And while the crowds sang hymns of praise, You, never forgetting Your compassion, wept over Jerusalem. Arise now, my soul, handmaid of the Savior; in the cortege of the daughters of Zion, go to see your King. Accompany the Lord of heaven and earth, seated on the colt, follow Him always with olive branches and palms, with works of piety and with victorious virtues” (cf. St. Bonaventure).

O Jesus, how bitter is Your weeping over the city that does not wish to recognize You! And how many souls, like Jerusalem, go toward perdition for their obstinate resistance to grace. For them I supplicate You with all my strength. “It is here, my God, that Your power must manifest itself, that Your mercy must shine forth!... How difficult is my request, O my true God, when I pray You to love him who does not love You, to open to him who does not knock, to give health to him who goes in search of sickness and rejoices in being sick!... You say, my Lord, that You have come to seek sinners. Behold here, Lord, the true sinners! But instead of looking at our blindness, consider, I pray You, my God, the precious Blood that Your Son shed for us. Cause that amidst so much malice Your mercy shine forth, and, considering, Lord, that we are Your creatures, spread upon us Your merciful clemency” (T.G. Es. 8, 2 and 3).

It is indeed true, O Jesus! even if we resist grace, You are always the Victor, Your victory over the prince of darkness has been full and in You humanity is saved and redeemed. But You are the good Shepherd who knows and loves each one of His sheep individually and one by one wishes to bring them to safety. To Your most loving Heart it is not enough to have merited salvation for the whole flock, but it ardently desires that each sheep profit by this salvation... O Lord, give us then that good will capable of welcoming Your gift, Your grace; cause that Your Passion may not be in vain for us.