Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church
Cumberland, RI
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together, and we all take up thy Cross and say: Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
This hymn, which we heard over and over again the Vespers last night, has a very specific historical reference. At some Palestinian monasteries, it was customary for all of the brethren, or at least the most senior monks, to scatter out into the desert for the forty days of Lent, spending that time alone in ascetic struggle. Then, today, on Palm Sunday, they would return to the monastery for Holy Week. Hence, the monks would sing in joy, after that period of separation, “Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together.”
While it is interesting to know the historical meaning of that hymn, we might ask, more importantly, whether it has any meaning for us. Has the grace of the Holy Spirit gathered us together?
The answer, of course, is yes. At the highest level, everything that happens is in accord with God’s providence and every good that occurs is thanks to his grace.
But God’s grace has also called us together in a more specific way. Whether we are fully initiated Orthodox Christians or “those who are preparing for illumination” or catechumens or inquirers, the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered is together to worship and, starting from wherever we may be at this moment, to enter more fully into the mystery of the faith.
Wherever we came from, we are here now; out of our diversity, the Most Holy Spirit has made a unity, an “us.” The Greek word for “Church” is ἐκκλησία, literally “called out of, summoned, called together.” We gather—we are gathered together—as Church to accompany Christ to his Cross, death, and Rising. As he enters his royal city, we greet him as our king.
In the words of Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, in the Matins canon for today’s feast:
“The Church of the Saints offers praise to thee, O Christ, who dwellest in Zion, and Israel rejoices in thee that made him. . . . O ye people, sing in Zion a hymn fitting for God, and offer prayer to Christ in Jerusalem. For he comes in power and glory: on him the Church is founded.”
However, the hymns of Palm Sunday also remind us that a shadow lies over the feast. The people of Jerusalem who came out to greet Christ and proclaim him king turned on him six days later; the same crowd who strew the streets with garments and waved branches of palm and pussy willow later cried out: “Crucify him!”
And this, too, is no mere historical memory. We, the people whom Christ has called together, his Church—we are the same people who crucified him with our sins.
This is what is means to be bought with his life; this is what it means to be redeemed with his blood.
In the words of the akathist “Glory to God for All Things”:
“I see thy Cross—I was the cause of it. I cast my spirit down in the dust before it. Here is the triumph of love and salvation.”
To save us from our sins, our King had to die. Our sins are the cause of his death. But his death is the founding of the Church: Blood and water from his side, baptism and the Eucharist, are the twin streams flowing through the centuries, giving life to the Church and watering and sustaining and growing her.
Truly, divine grace—the gift of Christ’s utterly generous self-offering—has called us together.
This is the paradox of Palm Sunday: we are called together to worship the King whom we shall put to death. And this double perspective will remain with us throughout Holy Week. Even as we celebrate Christ’s Passion in solemn triumph, we also recognize ourselves in Judas, the mob, the soldiers, Pilate, the fleeing disciples, the denying Peter. We are all villains and sinners who gave up Our Lord to death.
And yet, not we—he. He it is who, seeing our sin and villainy, decided to give himself up for the life of the world.
And so today, our Prince enters Jerusalem in all his splendor. Today he is ready to reign. Today he prepares himself to ascend the royal throne of the Cross. Today he declares himself ready for his coronation with the crown of thorns. Today garments cover his way, foreshadowing the kingly robe of mockery in which our sins will clothe him.
We have no illusions. We are the cause of the ignominious death to which he goes. And yet that death is the source of the grace that calls us together today; that death is the triumph of his kingdom, the kingdom of light and life, a kingdom that will be revealed clearly on the eighth day hence.
Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together, and we who were old and wizened in our sins have been made like unto little children, palms and branches in our hands, “Hosanna in the highest” on our lips.
We are sinners, but we repent. We are sinners, but today our Savior arrives in the holy city to renew and redeem us. We are sinners, but the grace of the Holy Spirit gathers us together to witness the events of our salvation.
And so with childlike joy in our hearts, “we all take up” the “Cross” of the Lord “and say: Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”
To him who enters Jerusalem riding in royal triumph on the foal of an ass, Christ our true God and King and Savior, be eternal glory and adoration, together with his Father and his Most Holy Spirit, by whose grace we are gathered in worship, unto ages of ages. Amen.