The joy of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem marked by the enthusiastic Hosanna turns into pensive and painful silence before the cry: Crucify him. Two Gospels accompany and guide us: one for the procession of palms followed by the long reading of the Passio. Each year a different evangelist allows us to grasp the mystery of the Easter of the Passion from a different angle. Each of us is asked to personally enter into the heart of the Easter drama knowing how to discern our role by identifying with this or that character or, more likely, by discovering in ourselves different and even conflicting emotions and reactions. The disciple is asked to have an attentive ear to understand what it means and what it means to be obedient until death and death on the cross. Like the horse used by Jesus to enter him, let us carry on us the sweet weight of his crucified glory and let ourselves be led by his hand, above all we learn to allow ourselves to be dispossessed and dispossessed in order to serve the One who needs it. On this Sunday we celebrate the reality of our human condition. It is like a wonderful fabric in which the weft of glory continuously and magnificently intersects with the weft of humiliation and fatigue. The Pharisees are very upset by the cheering reaction of the crowd as the Lord Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and they turn to him almost imploring: Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But this is not possible because the crowd senses that in Jesus the promise of that new humanity that we all await and already are is fulfilled.

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Community of the Koinonia de la Visitation

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey