Palm Sunday
(3 entries)
It is the children who bring their gift of praise so that the story
may expose as unfounded any suspicion of insincerity, in the event that
some deliberate evil-doer might say that the singers of praise offered
their hymn to the Lord with some artifice and in order to curry favor.
For the nature of babes knows not how to devise craftiness, or is it subject
to the disease of flattery, but just as the grace of the Spirit sounds
in them, so do they proclaim the miracle. Children offer their gift of
praise so that they all may be taught in very deed that the grace of the
Mystery is comprehended not by those who have a curious turn of mind and
are shamelessly inquisitive, but that the knowledge of piety is revealed
to those who approach it with an unaffected mind and thoughts unused to
evil.
St. Photios the Great, Homily on Palm Sunday
Lo, our King, meek and gentle, seated upon an ass With haste hurries
to suffer and to cut suffering -- The Word upon the dumb, willing it that
rational beings be redeemed. And it was possible to behold the One on the
back of the ass Who is on the shoulders of the Cherubim, The One Who once
translated Elijah in a fiery chariot, The One Who is poor of His own will,
but rich in His nature, The One Who is voluntarily weak, yet granting power
To all of those who cry out to Him: "Thou art the blessed One Who comes
to call up Adam."
Kontakia of Romanos, Vol. II, On the Entry into Jerusalem
Thou hast shown Thy strength in choosing the humble, for it was a sing
of poverty For Thee to sit on the ass; but as Glorious, Thou dost shake
Zion. The cloaks of the disciples pointed to frugality; But the song of
the children and the throng of people was a sing of Thy strength, As they
cry out, "Hosanna in the highest," that, Save! Thou Who art on high, save
the humbled; Heeding the palm branches, take pity on us, Look upon those
who cry out: "Thou art the blessed One Who comest to call up Adam."
Kontakia of Romanos, On The Entry into Jerusalem
