Gospel Commentary April 2, Mt 21:1-11, 26:14-27:66
“Year after year the Gospel passage for Palm Sunday recounts Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Together with his disciples and an increasing multitude of pilgrims he went up from the plain of Galilee to the Holy City. The Evangelists have handed down to us three proclamations of Jesus concerning his Passion, like steps on his ascent, thereby mentioning at the same time the inner ascent that he was making on this pilgrimage.”
With these words, Pope Benedict XVI began his homily for Palm Sunday in 2008. He pointed out that Jesus’ pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an ascent, in more than one sense. First of all, it was an ascent in a literal or geographical sense. To make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Galilee involved a net change in altitude of more than 3,000 feet. That is quite the climb.
But the Holy Father also spoke of this pilgrimage as an “inner ascent.” Jesus knew that his pilgrimage to the holy city was ultimately beyond it and to the cross. Outside the city walls, he will ascend Mount Calvary and give his life as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Three times he had told his apostles about this (see Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19), and these were as three “steps” on this inner ascent to the cross. This is how St. Matthew narrates the third of these “steps” of the ascent: “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’ ” (Mt 20:17-19).
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.” Christ invites his disciples to join him in this pilgrim ascent, not only physically to the holy city, but also interiorly to the cross. He invites us to climb the cross with him: “Behold, we are going up … ”
Pope Benedict continued to develop this idea in his 2011 book, “Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two,” which covers the events of Holy Week, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. In it, he wrote again about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem as both a geographical ascent and an inner one. But then he continued to show how we, though living about 2,000 years later, are drawn up into the same pilgrim ascent.
At the “Holy, Holy, Holy” of every Mass, we take up the same words that the crowds exclaimed to welcome Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (called the “Benedictus” for short). As Pope Benedict explained, “The early Church, then, was right to read this scene as an anticipation of what she does in her liturgy … The Benedictus also entered the liturgy at a very early stage. For the infant Church, ‘Palm Sunday’ was not a thing of the past. Just as the Lord entered the Holy City that day on a donkey, so too the Church saw him coming again and again in the humble form of bread and wine.”
Our Lord Jesus is the pilgrim who comes to us again and again. And when he comes to us, he takes us with him on his pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection. We welcome him when he comes — and today, we even welcome him with palms in our hands — acclaiming, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Unlike that crowd that welcomed him on the first Palm Sunday, we know where he is heading. And we are called to join him on this pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection, his inner ascent of total, self-sacrificial love.
Fr. Oetjen is studying canon law at Catholic University in Washington, with residence at St. Agnes Church in Arlington.
Pilgrim ascent
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Gospel Commentary April 2, Mt 21:1-11, 26:14-27:66
“Year after year the Gospel passage for Palm Sunday recounts Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Together with his disciples and an increasing multitude of pilgrims he went up from the plain of Galilee to the Holy City. The Evangelists have handed down to us three proclamations of Jesus concerning his Passion, like steps on his ascent, thereby mentioning at the same time the inner ascent that he was making on this pilgrimage.”
With these words, Pope Benedict XVI began his homily for Palm Sunday in 2008. He pointed out that Jesus’ pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an ascent, in more than one sense. First of all, it was an ascent in a literal or geographical sense. To make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Galilee involved a net change in altitude of more than 3,000 feet. That is quite the climb.
But the Holy Father also spoke of this pilgrimage as an “inner ascent.” Jesus knew that his pilgrimage to the holy city was ultimately beyond it and to the cross. Outside the city walls, he will ascend Mount Calvary and give his life as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Three times he had told his apostles about this (see Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:17-19), and these were as three “steps” on this inner ascent to the cross. This is how St. Matthew narrates the third of these “steps” of the ascent: “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day’ ” (Mt 20:17-19).
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.” Christ invites his disciples to join him in this pilgrim ascent, not only physically to the holy city, but also interiorly to the cross. He invites us to climb the cross with him: “Behold, we are going up … ”
Pope Benedict continued to develop this idea in his 2011 book, “Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two,” which covers the events of Holy Week, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. In it, he wrote again about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem as both a geographical ascent and an inner one. But then he continued to show how we, though living about 2,000 years later, are drawn up into the same pilgrim ascent.
At the “Holy, Holy, Holy” of every Mass, we take up the same words that the crowds exclaimed to welcome Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (called the “Benedictus” for short). As Pope Benedict explained, “The early Church, then, was right to read this scene as an anticipation of what she does in her liturgy … The Benedictus also entered the liturgy at a very early stage. For the infant Church, ‘Palm Sunday’ was not a thing of the past. Just as the Lord entered the Holy City that day on a donkey, so too the Church saw him coming again and again in the humble form of bread and wine.”
Our Lord Jesus is the pilgrim who comes to us again and again. And when he comes to us, he takes us with him on his pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection. We welcome him when he comes — and today, we even welcome him with palms in our hands — acclaiming, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Unlike that crowd that welcomed him on the first Palm Sunday, we know where he is heading. And we are called to join him on this pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection, his inner ascent of total, self-sacrificial love.
Fr. Oetjen is studying canon law at Catholic University in Washington, with residence at St. Agnes Church in Arlington.
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