Holy Week's turning point was earlier than we think
Although he did not speak directly to the group of Greeks on Palm Sunday, this decisive moment seems to have moved Our Lord's Sacred Heart.
Although he did not speak directly to the group of Greeks on Palm Sunday, this decisive moment seems to have moved Our Lord's Sacred Heart.
Editor’s Notes
In this Part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How Gentiles approach, seeking Christ at the climax of Israel’s rejection of him.
That their desire foreshadows the conversion of the nations after the Cross.
Why their presence consoles Christ even while He hides His glory from them.
He shows us that the desire of the nations is fulfilled only through His suffering and death.
There is so much material that we could share during Holy Week. Rather than trying to provide it all, we will instead focus on how and why Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem provides a key to the whole of his blessed and glorious Passion.
The Procession of Palms
Passiontide, Part I, Chapter II
St. Matt. xxi. 14-17; St. Mark xi. 1-11; St. Luke xix. 29-44; St. John xii. 12-18.
Story of the Gospels, § 132
Burns and Oates, London, 1889
Headings and some line breaks added.
Sung on Palm Sunday
Our Lord casts reserve aside and enters Jerusalem as Christ the King
What was it about Palm Sunday that most surprised the Pharisees?
The Pharisees
St. John adds another incident of a similar kind, which had been passed over in the rapid histories of the former Evangelists. ‘
The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Do you see that we prevail nothing? Behold, the whole world is gone after Him.’
It may well be supposed that they had been taken by surprise by the Procession of Palms. Nothing of the sort had ever happened before in the course of our Lord’s preaching, and now the great demonstration had come upon them of a sudden, showing what they would consider some aggressiveness on the part of our Lord Himself, as well as an amount of enthusiasm among the people which must have galled them exceedingly.
St. John tells us of a circumstance of a very different kind, but which still reveals the widespread interest which was felt in Him.
The Gentiles at the Feast
‘Now there were certain Gentiles among them who came up to adore on the festival day. These therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. Again, Andrew and Philip told Jesus.’
Philip and Andrew are mentioned in conjunction on the occasion of the feeding of the five thousand, and we may almost suppose that they had some office among the disciples which made it their business to settle little matters of detail, such as the provision of food, or the admission of chance strangers to our Lord.
On this occasion it is clear that the request made was something unusual, and that neither of the two Apostles would venture to act without communicating with Him. It is probable that these Gentiles were not Jews of the Dispersion, but really heathen, who had become acquainted with the Law of God from their communications with some of the foreign Jews, and that they had not been made proselytes, though they believed in the One God, and followed the Law as to the moral commandments.
Their introduction to our Lord, Who was not sent, as He said, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, would therefore be something altogether unusual, although we do not doubt that His Sacred Heart yearned with an intense desire for their salvation, and longed for the time when they might be admitted to His Church.
This, then, forms a last and most touching incident in this day of strange triumphs and joys mingled with mourning. It seems clear that although the mass of the crowd which had taken part in the Procession of Palms had melted away after our Lord had reached Jerusalem, or at least after He had entered the Temple, there were still a great number of people about Him. The approach of night would send many of them to their homes, or resting-places during their short sojourn in the city, while the most devoted of them would linger longer, especially after the apparent opposition of the Pharisees.
And the near approach of the short twilight seems to be alluded to in the words of our Lord which follow.
Words of our Lord
‘But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man shall be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. If any man minister unto Me, let him follow Me, that where I am, there also shall My servant be. If any man minister to Me, him will My Father honour.
‘Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? but for this cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name. A voice therefore came from Heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
‘The multitude therefore that stood and heard said that it thundered. Others said, An Angel spoke to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes.
‘Now is the judgment of the world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself. Now this He said signifying by what death He should die.
‘The multitude answered Him, We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever, and how sayest Thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?
‘Jesus therefore said to them, Yet a little while and the light is among you. Walk whilst you have the light that the darkness overtake you not. And he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. Whilst you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of the light.
‘These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.’1
It has been already said that these Gentiles were not persons who had been admitted into the commonwealth of Israel, as St. Paul speaks. They were not strictly ‘proselytes of justice,’ as it was said—not circumcised, and bound to the whole Law of Moses. Thus they were technically outside the fold to which our Lord’s Personal Mission lay. Our Lord does not speak to them directly, nor is anything said about the result of their application to the two Apostles.
But in any case their presence would bring before the Sacred Heart the immense results which were to follow from the Sacrifice of the Cross, which was so soon to be consummated, and which may be said to have been begun on this Day of Palms, when that solemn offering was accomplished which was pre-shadowed by the separation of the Paschal Lamb, which a few days after was to be sacrificed. Merely humanly speaking, the Day of Palms must have brought the Passion nearer, for it must have aggravated the hostile feeling on the part of the Scribes and Pharisees, and perhaps have added fuel to the flame of rancorous malice already burning in the heart of Judas.
Far greater than these circumstances in significance, was the solemn offering of Himself to the work of the Passion which our Lord had made in the Temple to His Father. Thus the approach of these Gentiles may have fitted in to the thoughts already in the Sacred Heart, and filled our Lord with the joyous anticipation of the fruit which was to spring from their sacrifice.
These Gentiles were to His Heart the first-fruits of the great Church of the Gentiles which was to be gathered into His fold by the labours of St. Paul and the glorious band of his followers in the Apostolate. At the same time, the moment for their reception by Him was not yet come, and He seems to have spoken the words which are here recorded, in their presence, without directly addressing them.
Former words about the Samaritans
The words may be compared to the others spoken under somewhat similar circumstances, on the very different though similar occasion of the approach to Him of the Samaritans, as recorded in the earlier part of this same Gospel of St. John.2
In both cases our Lord was looking forward, and the persons of whom He spoke or thought, were, as has been said, outside the range of His Personal Mission. At that earlier time, moreover, the Passion was yet distant, and He had not spoken of it except in the most enigmatical manner, even to the future Apostles. A comparison of the passages will bring out the parallelism as well as the distinction, between the words of our Lord. On the first occasion He had spoken of the readiness of the fields for the harvest, which was represented to the eye by the approach of the Samaritans through the cornfields, which were already white unto harvest.
He spoke prophetically of the work among these very Samaritans, of the Apostles then present with Him, when shortly after His Ascension St. Peter and St. John had been sent to accomplish the work, which had been begun in Samaria by the deacon St. Philip. There is nothing about the grain of corn sinking into the earth and dying, but simply the doctrine of the unity of work and the variety of persons who have a share in it.
‘He that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true, that it is one man that soweth and it is another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour; others have laboured and you have entered into their labours.’
Difference between the occasions
The difference between the discourses is the difference between the various times at which they were spoken, and the state of mind of the Apostles at those two different times.
Now our Lord could speak openly of the cost at which the salvation of the heathen was to be wrought. The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. The glory of the Son of Man began in the Passion, as our Lord said when Judas had gone forth from the Cenacle. Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him,’ and again, when Himself about to leave the same Cenacle for the last time before His actual Sacrifice, ‘Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may glorify Thee.’
There were to be many different stages in the process of this glorification, but this was the commencement of all. The hour was now come, because, as has been said, the solemn offering of Himself had just been made in the Temple. He goes on at once to thoughts which could not be put forward on that former occasion of the Samaritan preaching.
End of Part VII of our Passiontide and Holy Week focus on the Triumphal Entry.
In the next part, Fr Coleridge explains what Christ meant by his words about the grain of wheat dying, and bearing fruit.
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The Procession of Palms
Our Lord casts reserve aside and enters Jerusalem as Christ the King
What was it about Palm Sunday that most surprised the Pharisees?
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St. John xii. 20-36.
St. John iv.