Today we
celebrate Palm Sunday, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The official calendar
gives to this Sunday a very cumbersome title: Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.
Ten days ago
the Cardinal Archbishop of Argentina entered the Vatican to be eventually
elected Pope. The two occasions
invite some reflection.
The entry into
Jerusalem was a triumphal occasion.
The build up for the celebratory event started in Jericho when Jesus
passed by together with other pilgrims.
Seated along the road was the blind man Bartimaeus. When he became aware that among the
pilgrims was Jesus, he started shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
me.” Jesus finally summoned him
and cured his blindness. Immediately, the theme “David” took hold of the
growing crowd which decided to accompany Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.
Nothing like
that preceded the entry of Cardinal Bergoglio into the Vatican. He was not among the touted papabiles and, in fact, only the
reporter John Allen mentioned him as a possible Pope. Unnoticed Cardinal Bergoglio entered Rome.
I had always
thought that the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was intentionally a very
plebeian event. It turns out,
however, as told by the future Benedict XVI in his book on the Passion of Our
Lord, that the event was rich with symbols of royalty.
Jesus arrived
at the Mount of Olives from Bethpage and Bethany where the arrival of he
Messiah was awaited. He told two
disciples that they would find an untamed colt tied to a fence and were to take
it over. If questioned, they were
instructed to answer that the Master needed it. They found the colt and did as they were told.
I used to
wonder what the justification was for this appropriation. Now I am told by the future Benedict
XVI of its royalty implications.
It was all a recollection of the right of the king to requisition what
he needed for travel, a right recognized in antiquity.
More
importantly, Matthew and John cite Zacariah saying: “Rejoice heartily, O
daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come
to you; a just savior is he, Meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of
an ass.” Jesus is presented as a
king who breaks down the triumphal arcs of war, as a king of peace, of
simplicity and of the poor. This
was a decisive rejection of zealotry.
This is how
Pope Francis has been presenting himself.
And even in his life as prelate in the difficult days of the
dictatorship in Argentina, he avoided any semblance of zealotry. He worked as a
man of peace
When finally
the disciples brought the colt to Jesus, something unexpected happened: the
disciples threw their cloaks on the animal and they proceeded to help Jesus to
mount the animal. Joseph Ratzinger
recalls in this how Solomon ascended to the throne of David. The priest Zadoc and the prophet
Nathan helped by others installed
Solomon on the throne.
Likewise,
there was symbolic royalty when the disciples threw their cloaks on the animal:
it was a gesture of enthronement in the tradition of Davidic royalty.
The enthusiasm
of the disciples infected the crowd who thereafter carpeted the road with their
cloaks and branches of threes
while shouting the words of Psalm
118, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father
David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!"
This
enthusiastic crowd of pilgrims was not the same crowd that would later shout
“Crucify him, crucify him!” But
the enthusiasm of the Palm Sunday crowd was repeated in St. Peter Square when
the thousands greeted Pope Francis when it was announced, “We have a Pope who
has taken the name Francis.”
After the
entry into Jerusalem, what happened?
Mark tells us that after the enthusiastic reception by the crowd, Jesus
went to the Temple to observe what was happening, and then retired to Bethany.
Later he returned to the Temple to cleanse it of those engaged in buying and
selling. He also overthrew the tables of money changers and the places of those
selling doves.
What was this
all about? Was it a manifestation
of zealotry or of political revolution?
Mark sees the answer in the
words of Our Lord: "Is it not written: 'My house shall be called a house
of prayer for all peoples'? But you have made it a den of thieves."
After the
installation of Pope Francis, what will happen? There is much talk about the cleansing of Vatican
offices. We shall await Vatican developments.
25 March 2013
