Hosánna Fílio David

Hosánna fílio David: benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini.

Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord.

Antiphon for the Blessing of Palms

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. On this day Our Lord enters triumphantly into Jerusalem, welcomed as a King by the crowds that lay cloaks and palm branches in His path and hail Him as the royal Son of David. It seems at last the jealous conniving of the scribes and Pharisees has been silenced, and that He is receiving the praise and recognition He deserves.

But only a few days later He will stand in chains in the court of Pilate while the crowds demand the release of a criminal. Now he is greeted with smiles and joyful cries of Hosánna, but soon He will be jeered and scorned with cries of “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” He will soon trade this regal reception for a crown of thorns, this royal road into the holy city for the Via Dolorosa that will take Him outside the city, to Golgotha where He will be executed as an outcast of the people. So many stand by Him now, but so few will stand by Him on Good Friday.

We might feel especially sorrowful this Holy Week, as most of us will spend the sacred hours of the Triduum without its beautiful liturgies. As we watch the ceremonies livestreamed from afar and cannot participate in the same way we usually do, we may feel like we are not accompanying our King. But nothing could be further from the truth. We are simply accompanying Him in a different way, in some respects a deeper way which, if we allow it, will draw us even closer to Him. He is allowing us to accompany Him in His solitude, for He Himself faced this time alone, deprived of friends, supporters, consolations. The only ones who stayed with Him were those closest to Him: His Mother, St. John, St. Mary Magdalene. Let us, then, not become despondent, angry or frustrated, things that put us so far from Our Lord, but let us be counted among those closest to Him, those who followed Him down the longest road, those who loved Him to the end. +

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