His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros
Homily for Palm Sunday Liturgy
April 9, 2023
Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church
Annapolis, Maryland
Beloved in Christ,
I am so very happy to share this magnificent feast with all of you, here in the Capital of Maryland, in this truly beautiful Temple dedicated to the Equals-to-the-Apostles, Constantine and Helen.
Today we behold our King coming to us, into the Holy City of Jerusalem, and we greet him with palm fronds to honor him as the Victor over death. He comes to us with humility and with gentleness, as the Prophet Zechariah foretold:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, humble and riding on a donkey – a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The Lord Jesus is a King – He is the King of Kings – but unlike any earthly monarch. As He will tell Pontius Pilate in just a few days, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”
In coming to the Holy City on a donkey, the Lord shows that the conquest He offers is not one of earthly realms. He does not ride in on a white horse with legions of Angels wielding their fiery swords. Even Peter, who will swing his sword in the Lord’s defense in the Garden of Gethsemane, will be told to sheath his weapon. Because the Lord’s kingdom is not of this world.
As we pray here together, our Ukrainian sisters and brothers across the ocean are facing their second Holy Week under attack by their Russian spiritual cousins. What we see here is war for kingdoms and lands and power and wealth. Nothing to do with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, our precious Church has been dragged into a vicious cycle of violence, just like the Lord was dragged away from Gethsemane by the mob, and turned over, little by little, to the Romans who crucified Him.
My friends – we live in times of contradiction! The Elder Symeon said it very clearly to the Panagia the day she presented her Son in the Temple, forty days after His Nativity.
“Behold, He is laid down for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and as a sign of contradiction.”
As Orthodox Christians, we must make a choice about bringing in God’s Kingdom on earth. Do we take up arms and try to impose it? Or do we mean what we say when we pray the only prayer that the Lord ever taught us:
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,
ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray for God’s reign to come upon our world, as He reigns in Heaven. But His Kingdom does not come through violence against another human being. If there is violence, it is the interior violence that the Lord spoke of:
From the days of John the Baptist until this very moment the Kingdom of Heaven is under siege, and the violent bear it away.
This is nothing less that the relentless pursuit of righteousness that takes Heaven by storm. This is the askesis of the great monastic fathers and mothers who conquered their physical weaknesses through spiritual exercise. This is the struggle that is always peaceful with others, even when it battles within the inner person. It fights against hatred. Against prejudice. Against all the elements that give rise to war in the world, for the only weapon for a true Christian is the Cross of the Lord – the Weapon of Peace, Ὅπλον Εἰρήνης – that is revealed on Holy Friday.
The People who greeted Jesus that first Palm Sunday with shouts and praise lay down their cloaks on the road; they cut palm branches from the trees and cast them before Him. Somehow, they believed that this Rabbi from Galilee was their liberator. They thought he would drive the Romans from their land. They were not looking for the Kingdom of Heaven. They wanted an earthly monarch to rule them.
Yes, the Lord is the King of Kings, but He wears no crown, not until the Roman soldiers plait a Crown of Thorns and push it onto His sacred head, where it will run with His Most Precious Blood.
The Lord is the King of Kings, but He is not mounted in a magnificent chariot, adorned with bejeweled armor and exquisite horses. Only a donkey, a beast of burden, and the people did not understand that they were – that we are! - the burden that the Lord has come to liberate.
Indeed, the Lord is King of Kings, and can command Twelve Legions of Angels, as He will tell His Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. But He cannot even convince those same Twelve Disciples to stand with Him in that most pressing moment. One betrays Him. Another denies Him. And they all desert Him. What kind of an army is that for a King?
My beloved Christians:
Today, some of our Christian Brothers and Sisters are celebrating Easter – and we wish them every joy. But we are not there yet. We have only just arrived in Jerusalem.
The Glorious Entry into Jerusalem is telling us even now – that His reign, His kingdom, is the Kingdom of Peace, of Love, of the human heart – the Kingdom of God that is within each and every one of us.
His humbleness is our Exaltation. Let us embrace it with all our hearts, and allow this Holy Week to transform our lives.
His love will never fail to forgive us, to redeem us, to save us, and to bring us into His Heavenly Kingdom, where He reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Καλή Δύναμη, καὶ Καλή Ἀνάσταση!
.
.
.
Photograph: Marcus Chacona
Today’s Divine Liturgy for Palm Sunday, at Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church - Annapolis, Maryland