Unbinding The Colt

Mittit Salvator discipulos suos, ut solvant pullum asinae super quem nullus hominum aliquando sederat. Porro quid aliud super asinum sedere potest absque homine? Volo paulisper exemplum sumere, ut quod dicturus sum, possit intelligi. Scriptum est in Isaia: Visio quadrupedum in tribulatione et angustia, et reliqua, usque ad eum locum ubi ait: Non proderunt eis divitiae aspidum. Unusquisque nostrum consideret quantas opes aspidum ante portaverit, quantas divitias bestiarum, et quomodo numquam rationabilis homo sederit super asinum nostrum, non sermo Moysi, non Isaiae, non Jeremiae, nec reliquorum omnium prophetarum: et videbit tunc sedisse super nos sermonem Dei atque rationem, quando venit Dominus Jesus, et praecepit discipulis suis, ut euntes solverent pullum asinae, qui prius vinctus fuerat, ut liber incederet. Solutus itaque pullus asinae adducitur ad Jesum, ad cujus solutionem mittens discipulos dixerat: Si quis vos interrogaverit quare solvitis pullum, dicite ei quia Dominus necessarium illum habet. Multi erant domini hujus pulli antequam Salvator cum haberet necessarium: postquam vero ille coepit esse dominus, plures domini esse cessaverunt. Nemo enim potest Deo servire et mammonae. Quando malitiae servierimus, multis sumus passionibus vitiisque subjecti. Solvitur ergo pullus, quia Dominus necessarium cum habet. Vos estis pullus asinae, quid vestri Filius Dei necessarium habet? quid a vobis expetit? salute vestra opus habet, cupit vos solvi vinculis peccatorum. Deinde mittunt discipuli vestes suas super asinum, et sedere faciunt Salvatorem. Assumunt sermonem Dei, et imponunt cum super animas auditorum. Vestibus exuuntur, substernunt eas in via. Super nos sunt vestimenta apostolorum: opera eorum bona, ornamenta nostra sunt, volunt apostoli indumenta sua calcari a nobis. Et revera solutus a discipulis asinus, et portans Jesum, incidit super vestimenta apostolorum, quando doctrinam eorum imitatur et vitam. Quis nostrum ita beatus est, ut sedeat super illum Jesus? Qui quamdiu in monte fuit, cum suis apostolis morabatur: quando vero coepit vicinus esse descensui, tum occurrit ei turba populorum. Si non venisset ad descensum, non ei poterat occurrere multitudo. Descendit, seditque super pullum asinae, et omnis populus voce consona laudabat Deum. Quod Pharisaei videntes, dicebant Domino: Increpas eos. Quibus ille respondit: Si isti tacuerint, lapides clamabunt. Quando nos loquimur, lapides silent: quando nos tacemus, lapides clamant. Potest enim Dominus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae. Quo tempore nos tacebimus? Quando refrixerit charitas multorum, quando illud quod a Salvatore praedicatum est, fuerit impletum: Putas veniens Filius hominis inveniet fidem super terram? Propterea Domini misericordiam deprecemur, ne nobis tacentibus, lapides clamitent; sed loquamur et laudemus Deum in Patre, et Filio, et Spiritu sancto. Origenes, Homiliae in Lucam, Homilia XXXVII, De eo quod a discipulis pullus asinae solutus est, Interprete Sancto Hieronymo Source: Migne PG 13.1895c-1896d

The Saviour sends His disciples to loose the colt of an ass which was bound and on whom no man had ever sat. 1 How was it that no man had ever sat on it? I wish for a moment to take up an example, so that what I shall say shall be understood. It is written in Isaiah, 'A vision of beasts in distress and anguish...' and the rest, until that place where it says, '...the wealth of asses shall not profit them.' 2 Let each one of us consider how much of the wealth of asses he carried before, how much the wealth of beasts, and how a rational man had never sat on our ass, not the speech of Moses, nor Isaiah, nor Jeremiah, nor any of the rest of the Prophets, and then let us see that the rational word had come to sit upon us when Jesus Christ came and instructed His disciples to go and untie the colt of an ass, which had been bound, so that it might walk freely. Thus the unbinding of the colt of the ass leads to Jesus, to which unbinding He sends the disciples, saying, 'If someone asks you why you are untying the colt, say to him that the master has need of it.' Many were its masters before the Lord had need of it, but after He begins to be the master the other masters fall away. 'No one can serve God and mammon.' 3 When we are servants of wickedness we are the subjects of many passions and vices. Therefore the colt is unbound because the Lord has need. You are the colt of the ass, why would the Lord have need of you? What does He want with you? He cares for your salvation. He wishes for you to be unbound from the chains of sin. Then the disciples threw their garments over the ass and made the Saviour sit. They take up the word of God and place it on the souls of those who hear. They take off their garments and strew them in the way. The vestments of the Apostles are over us, their good works are our adornments, and they wish their cloaks to be trodden on by us. And truly the ass untied by the disciples and bearing Jesus walks on the cloaks of the Apostles when their teaching and way is imitated. Who of us is so blessed that Jesus sits upon us? He who while he was on the mount tarried with His Apostles, but then He began to come near when He descended, and that so that He might approach the crowd of the people. If He had not come down, the multitude would not have been able to meet Him. 4 He descends, He sits on the colt of the ass and all the people praise God with one voice. When the Pharisees see, they say to the Lord, 'Cry out against them,' and He answers, 'If I silenced them, the stones would cry out.' When we speak the stones are silent, when we are silent the stones cry out. For the Lord can raise up sons of Abraham from stones. 5 At what time shall we be silent? When the love of many cools, when that which has been preached by the Saviour is fulfilled. Do you think that the son of man shall find faith on earth? 6 Let us pray for the mercy of the Lord, lest with us being silent, the stones cry out. But let us speak and praise God, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Origen, Homilies on Luke, from Homily 37, On why the donkey colt was unbound by the disciples, translated by Saint Jerome 1 Lk 19.29-30 2 Isaiah 30.6 3 Lk 16.13 4 Mt 5.1-8.1 5 Mt 3.8 6 Lk 18.8