Glory And Suffering

Si igitur, ut dicere coeperam, hodierna processio simul et passio considerentur, ibi plane videtur Jesus sublimis et gloriosus, hic humilis et aerumnosus. In processione namque cogitatur in honore regis; in passione spectatur in poena latronis. Ibi circumdant eum gloria et honor; hic non est ei species neque decor. Ibi gaudium hominum et gloria plebis; hic opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis. Ibi acclamatur ei: Hosanna filio David benedictus qui venit rex Israel; hic inclamatur reus mortis; subsannaturque quod e fecerit regem Israel,Ibi cum ramis palmarum ei occurritur; hic alapis palmarum in faciem caeditur, et arundine percutitur caput. Ibi praeconiis sublimatur; hic saturatur opprobriis. Ibi certatim ei via sternitur vestimentis alienis; hic exuitur propriis.Ibi tanquam rex justus et salvator suscipitur in Jerusalem; hic tanquam reus et seductor damnatus ejicitur de Jerusalem. Ibi in asino stipatus obsequiis; hic pendet in ligno crucis caesus flagellis, confossus plagis, et desertus a suis. Ecce plus quam Job hic, cui tam repente, tam vehementer omnia semel in contrarium Deus vertit. Sufferentiam Job audistis, finem Domini vidistis, ait Jacobus apostolus. Ac si diceret: Sufferentia Job fuit usque a reditum substantiae; sufferentia Domini usque ad exitum vitae. Job quidem patienter damna sustinuit, sed mox in terra sua duplicia suscepit; Christus ut erat repletus miseriis, et inebriatus amaritudinibus, e mundo migravit. Itaque plus quam Job hic, qui de summa, ut putabatur, repente semelque dejectus felicitate, in extrema atque gavissima finem sortitus est calamitate. Et haec, inquit, passus sum absque iniqutiate manus meae, cum habarem mundas ad Deum preces, etiam pro crucifixoribus, ut eis ignosceret. Guerricus Ignaciensis, In Dominica Palmarum, Sermo III, De Duplici specie qua Christus proponitur spectandus Source: Migne PL 185.135a-d

If, then, as I had begun to say, today's procession and the Passion should be considered together, it seems that first Jesus is sublime and glorious and then humble and wretched. For in the procession He is reckoned to have the honour of a king, in the Passion is seen the punishment of a criminal. First He is surrounded by glory and honour, then He has no beauty or allure. First is the joy of men and the glory of the people, then the disgrace of men and shame of the people. First they acclaim him with, 'Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes, the king of Israel,' then the guilt of death cries forth and He is mocked that He would make Himself the king of Israel. First He was met with palm branches, then with palms He is struck in the face and cut with reeds. First He is proclaimed by heralds, then He is showered with insults. First others cover the way with vestments Him, then His garments are stripped from Him. First He is received into Jerusalem as a righteous king and saviour, then He is condemned as a criminal and a corruptor and cast out of Jerusalem. First He is set on a donkey by servants, then He hangs on a wooden cross, scourged with the whip, bruised with blows, forsaken by His own. Behold, there is more here than Job, who God so suddenly and so forcibly overthrew God. You have heard of the suffering of Job, you seen the end of the Lord, as James says. 1 As if someone were to say, 'Job suffered until his substance was restored, and the suffering of the Lord was even to the loss of life. Job patiently endured his losses, but soon on the earth received twofold, Christ was filled with misery, and wracked with bitterness, and departed the world.' Thus there is more than Job here, who from the heights, as was thought, was suddenly cast down from happiness and set in ruin until the final and burdensome end. 'And these things,' Job says, 'I have suffered without wickedness on my hands, when I have offered pure prayers to God,' 2 indeed for those who tormented him, so that he might forgive them. Guerric of Igny, from the Second Sermon on Palm Sunday, On The Two Appearances by which Christ is set forth to be seen 1 James 5.11 2 Job 16.18

Spreading Vestments And Branches

Καὶ ἤγαγον τὸν πῶλον πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν, καὶ ἐπέβαλον αὐτῷ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν , καὶ ἑκάθισεν ἐπ' αὐτόν. Πολλοὶ δὲ τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν ἔστρωσαν εἰς τὴν ὀδόν · ἄλλοι δὲ στιβάδας ἔκοπτον ἐκ τῶν δένδρων, καὶ ἐστρώννυον εἰς τὴν ὁδόν. Καὶ οἱ προάγοντες καὶ οἱ ἀκολουθοῦντες έκραζον λέγοντες · Ωσαννὰ εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου. Εὐλογημένη ἡ ἐρχομένη βασιλεία ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Δαβίδ · Ωσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις. ᾿Αλλά γὰρ στρώσωμεν καὶ ἡμεῖς τὰ ἱμάτια ἡμῶν, ἤτοι τὴν σάρκα, ἱμάτιον γὰρ ἡ σάρξ τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ ὑποτάξωμεν ταύτην τῷ Κυρίῳ. Καὶ στρώσωμεν τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ ἡμετέρου βίου, κόπτοντες ἐκ τῶν δένδρων κλάδους, τουτέστι, τοὺς τῶν ἁγίων βίους μιμούμενοι. Δένδρα γὰρ οἱ ἅγιοι, ἀφ᾽ ὧν κόπτει κλάδους ὁ μιμούμενος τὴν ἐκείνων ἀρετήν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ προἀγουσαι καὶ αἱ ἀκολουθοῦσαι πράξεις ἡμῶν εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ ἔστωσαν. Τινὲς γὰρ ἐν μὲν τῷ προάγοντι βίῳ καλὴν ἀρχὴν ἐνεδείξαντο, ὁ δὲ ἀκολουθῶν βίος, ὁ ὕστερον λέγω, οὐκ ἦν τοιοῦτος, οὐδὲ εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ. Θεοφύλακτος Αχρίδος, Ἑρμηνεία Εἰς Τὸ Κατὰ Μάρκον, Κεφαλὴ AI' Source: Migne PG 123.612c-613a

And they brought the colt to Jesus, and they lay their garments on it, and he sat upon it And many spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches from the trees, and spread them in the way. And those who went before and those who followed, cried out, saying, 'Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the coming of the kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.' 1 Let us spread out our own vestments, that is, the flesh, for the flesh is the covering of the soul, and let us subject it to the Lord. And let us spread out the way of our lives, breaking off the branches from the trees, that is, imitating the lives of those who are holy. For the trees are the holy ones, from which they take the branches in imitation of their virtue. And let our deeds going behind and following after, be for the glory of God. For those who bear an upright life from the beginning go before Him, but the life which follows is not like that, not being for the glory of God. Theophylact of Ochrid, Commentary On The Gospel Of Saint Mark, Chapter 11 1 Mk 11.7-10

The Procession

Quatuor ergo sunt genera in processione Domini. Boni prudentes, et boni simplices: hi sunt qui praeeunt, et qui sequuntur. Bonos autem addidi, quia prudentes non boni, iniqui sunt, juxta illud: Sapientes sunt ut faciant mala; et simplices non boni, stulti sunt. In processione sutem Domini, nec iniquus locum habet, nec stultus. Porro qui adhaerent ei, contemplativi sunt. Qui portant eum et onerantur eo, ipsi sunt duri corde, et parum devoti. Sed ecce omnes sunt in processione Domini, et nemo ex ipsis faciem ejus videt. Nam qui praecedunt, occupati sunt in paranda via, solliciti circa peccata et tentationes aliorum. Qui sequuntur, ipsi omnino faciem ejus videre non possunt: sed, sicut Moysi dictum est, posteriora ejus vident. Jumentum cui insidet, nunquam ad videndum levat oculos, sed pronum est semper in terram. Qui vero adhaerent ipsi, aliquando videre possunt, sed raptim et non continue, nec plene dum adhuc sunt in via. Attamen quantum ad alios, ipsi magis facie ad faciem eum vident, juxta quod item de Moyse scriptum est, quia caeteris quidem prophetis per visiones et somnia, Moysi vero facie ad faciem loquebatur. Quantum ad plenam sane visionem, nec ipse Moyses, dum viveret in hoc mundo, impetrare potuit faciei ipsius visionem; quia, sicut ipse ait, Non videbit me homo, et vivet. Non videbor, inquit, in hac vita: non videbit quis faciem meam in hac via, et in processione ista. Ipse itaque magna pietate sua donet nobis sic in ejus processione perseverare dum vivimus, ut in magna illa processione, qua cum suis omnibus a Patre suscipiendus est, et traditurus regnum Deo et Patri, sanctam civitatem ingredi mereamur cum eo. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, Dominica Palmarum, Sermo II Source: Migne PL 183.259b-d

There are four kinds in the procession of the Lord. There are the wise who are good and the simple who are good, and they go before and they follow behind. Good is added here because there are the wise who are not good but wicked, according to which, 'They are wise so that they may do evil,' 1 and there are simple folk who are not good but fools. But in the procession of the Lord the wicked man has no place, nor the fool. But those who adhere to Him are the contemplatives. Those who bear him and are borne by Him are the hard in heart and those of slight devotion. But, behold, all are in the procession of the Lord, and none of them see His face. For those who go before, they are occupied in preparing the way, and their care is for fault and the impediments of others. Those who follow, they are not able to see His face, but as was said of Moses, they look on His back. The animal which carries Him never lifts up its eyes to look, but they are always bent down to the earth. But those who adhere to Him, they are sometimes able to see Him, but only briefly and not continuously, and not fully while they are in this life. However more than others they see Him face to face, as it was written of Moses, that while to other prophets He spoke in dreams and visions, to Moses He spoke face to face. But as for the full vison, not even Moses, while he lived in this world, was able to entreat the sight of His face, because as He said, 'No man shall see me and live' 2 I shall not be seen, He says, in this life, nor shall anyone see me on this way, and in this procession. Therefore He gives great piety to us so that we might persevere in His procession while we live, and then that with all who are His we might be taken up by the Father, and being given the kingdom from God and the Father, we shall merit to enter into the holy city with Him. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Year, On Palm Sunday, from Sermon 2, 1 Jerem 4.22 2 Exod 33.11-22

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, neither 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

Vestments And Branches

Turbae autem, quae vestimenta sternebat in via, credentes erant ex circumcisione, qui gloriam, quam habebant ex lege, videntes Christum, dejecerunt in terram, semetipsos humiliantes, et cum Apostolo Paulo dicentes: Secundum justitiam, quae ex lege est, conversatus sum sine querela, sed quae fuerunt mihi lucra, haec aetimavi propter Christum detrimenta, et arbitror stercora esse ut Christum lucrifaciam. Quid est autem aliud, quam justitiam legis terrae coaequare, ante sublimem gloriam Christi? Qui autem ramos de arboribus praecidebant frondentes, ipsi erant credentes et eruditi doctores, qui ex prophetis accipientes exempla viva de Christo, quasi de arboribus semper virentibus, et numquam folia verborum suorum dejicientibus, ramos frondentes ante pedes subjugalis populi strenebant, et per ea exampla quasi per ramos frondentes, virentes sine offendiculo ambularent per viam vitae istius, donec introirent in sanctuarium Dei. Turba autem quae praecedebat, et quae sequebatur, clamabat, dicens: Hosianno filio David. Memores populi mirabilium ejus, quae ostendit eis, et sanitatum, quas praestitit eis, exsultantibus cordibus suis, ante et retro calambant, Hosianna filio David. Qui praecedebant, seniores erant, id est, partriarchae, prophetae, caeterique sancti, qui ante adventum Christi de adventu ejus et praedixerunt, et cognoverunt, sequentes autem juniores, id est, apostoli, martyres, caeterique doctores, qui post ascensum Christi de resurrectione ejus et ascensione vel operibus praedicaverunt et praedicant: et licet diversis quidem temporibus fuerunt, tamen in omnibus unus exsultationis spiritus fuit. Et illi quidem prophetantes de Christo venturo clamaverunt: Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini: hi autem laudantes clamant de adventu Christi jam impleto, Hosianna filio David. Hosianna autem quidem interpretantur gloriam, alii redemptionem, alii Salvifica, sive Salvum fac. Nam et gloria illi debetur, et redemptio illi convenit, qui omnes redemit, et pretiosi sanguinis effusione salvavit. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXXVII Source:  Migne PG 56.838

The crowd which lay its vestments in the road, 1 were the believers from the circumcision, who the glory which they had from the law, seeing Christ, they cast down to earth, humiliating themselves, and saying with the Apostle Paul: 'According to the righteousness which is from the law I am acquainted without fault, but whatever profit that was to me, I account it loss on account of Christ, and I judge it to be waste that I might profit Christ.' 2 What is this that makes the righteousness of the law equal to the earth but the sublime glory of Christ? For they who were breaking off the leafy branches from the trees were the believers and the educated teachers, who from the Prophets were the recipients of the teachings concerning Christ, as from trees always green, that never cast down the leaves of their words, which leafy branches they strewed before the feet of a humbled people, and by these teachings, as leafy branches, flourishing without blemish, they walked through the way of this life, until they entered into the sanctuary of God. And the crowd went before and came behind him, crying out: 'Hosanna to the son of David.' They were mindful of His miracles, which He showed to them, and the healing which He gave to them, exulting in their hearts, before and after crying out: 'Hosanna to the son of David.' They who went before were the elders, that is, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, and the other holy ones, who before the advent of Christ preached His coming and knew of it. They who followed were the young folk, the Apostles, the Martyrs, and other teachers, who after the resurrection of Christ and His ascension preached with works, and taught, and these indeed were people of different times, but in all was the one exultation of the spirit. And they who made prophecy concerning the coming of Christ, cried out: 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,' and those who praised now that the coming of Christ was fulfilled, cried out: 'Hosanna, to the son of David.' Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from The Thirty Seventh Homily 1  Mt 21.8 2 Phil 3.6-8

Bearing And Walking

Et duxerunt illum ad Jesum. Et jacentes vestimenta sua supra pullum, imposuerunt Jesum. Eunte autem illo, substernebant vestimenta sua in via... Disce a domestico Dei gestare Christum quoniam prius te ille gestabat, cum pastor errantem reduceret ovem: disce sedula mentis tuae dorse substernere, disce esse sub Christo, ut possis esse supra mundum. Non quicumque facile vehit Christum, sed ille qui potest dicere: Incurvatus et humiliatus sum nimis: rugiebam a gemitu cordis mei. Quod si desideras non moveri, super illa vestimenta sanctorum elutum fige vestigium. Cave enim ne lutulentis pedibus incedas, cave ne transversis gressibus, perstrata tibi propheticarum viarum itinera derelinquas; namque ut tutior venturis gentibus esset incessus, propriis indumentis usque ad Dei templum qui praeibant Jesum, semitam munierant. Ut tu sine offensione gradiaris, discipuli Domini amictu se proprii corporis exuentes, inter adversa turbarum viam tibi suo stravere martyrio. Si quis tamen ita vult accipere, non renitimur, quod pullus iste jam supra Judaeorum vestimenta graderetur. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, Liber IX Source: Migne PL 15.1796

So they brought the colt to Jesus and spreading out their garments on it, placed Jesus on it. Then going with Him, they strewed the road with their garments...1 Learn from the domestic beast of God to carry Christ, because He also carried, as a shepherd bringing back the lost sheep; 2 learn to sustain with the firm backbone of your mind, learn to be beneath Christ, that you may be able to be above the world. No one easily bears Christ unless they are able to say, 'I am bent down and humiliated excessively, I have groaned from the depths of my heart.' 3 If you desire not to be moved, fix your way over the strewn vestments of the saints; beware lest your feet stray into mud, beware lest with wandering steps you forsake the journey the prophetic ways have laid out for you, for with more safety you may walk among the people who with their own covering have preceded you to the temple of God, making sure the way. And that you may walk without fault, strip off the things of your own body for a garment of a disciple of the Lord, He who has laid out before you, on the way amid hostile crowds, His own martyrdom. If He so wishes to receive, let us not resist, for this young one has already trodden on the vestments of the Jews. Saint Ambrose, from the Commentary On The Gospel of Luke, Book 9 1 Lk 19 35-36 2 Lk 15.6 3 Ps 37.9