Dear brothers and sisters, today the Church introduces us to the mystery of one of the deepest and at the same time most moving days of the church year - the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, when external triumph is intertwined with internal tragedy, because this day is not only a holiday of joy, but also a foretaste of the Cross, and therefore, when we stand today with willow branches, spiritually joining those people who met Christ two thousand years ago, we cannot help but realize that this triumph already carries within itself the shadow of Golgotha, because Christ enters Jerusalem not to sit on an earthly throne, but to ascend the Cross and give Himself for the salvation of the world, and therefore this joy is not superficial or emotional, it is deep, permeated with the mystery of God's love, which does not stop before suffering, but precisely through it opens the way to life.
It is no coincidence that this is the only moment in the Savior's earthly life when He allows people to openly praise Him, for previously He avoided human glory, taught humility, and withdrew from the crowd, but now He accepts this praise, for He enters as a King, but not as the one the world expected, not as a political liberator and not as an earthly ruler, but as the King of meekness, the King of love, the King who voluntarily goes to death, and therefore His entrance is the fulfillment of prophecies and at the same time the revelation of the truth about the kingdom of God, which is not built by force, but by sacrifice, and in this context the words of the Holy Scripture that the people proclaimed when meeting Him sound especially profound:
(I.e. "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Matt. 21:9),
But this very human wave of enthusiasm turns out to be unstable, because in a few days the same voices will shout something completely different, and in this the tragedy of the human heart is revealed, which is easily inflamed but just as easily cooled, which seeks God but is not always ready to follow Him to the end.
And this change is not just an event of the past, it is the reality of each of us, because in our lives too, an inner “Hosanna” often sounds when God blesses, when He gives peace and joy, but at the same time, an inner rejection arises in us when His path requires sacrifice, change, and self-denial from us, and that is why Christ addresses each of us with words that remain the eternal criterion of true discipleship:
(I.e. "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34), for it is impossible to enter His glory without passing through His path, and here one of the deepest spiritual truths is revealed—we often want joy without suffering, victory without struggle, glory without the cross, but Christ shows that true life is born only through the sacrifice of love.
Even the apostles, the people closest to Him, did not immediately understand this, because when He spoke of His suffering, they thought of the first places, of the proximity to glory, and this reveals a deep wound in human nature - the desire to bypass the cross and immediately enter into joy, but God's way is different, and it requires the purification not only of the external life, but also of the inner world of man, in particular of his conscience, because we often say that we live "according to conscience," but we do not always think about whether this conscience is enlightened by God's light, or whether it only reflects our desires and justifies our actions, and therefore spiritual life is a constant purification of the heart, so that it becomes capable of hearing God, and not only itself.
In this context, the words of the saints are especially profound, reminding us that true life is determined not by external achievements, but by the inner state of love, for, as Isaac the Syrian says:
(I.e. "A merciful heart is a heart that burns with love for all creation", and it is precisely such love that is a sign of God's presence in man, because before God it does not matter who we are in the world, what position or status we have, but what matters is how much we have learned to love, how much we have become able to serve others without seeking our own, and this is precisely the true entrance of God into our heart.
Therefore, the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem is not only a historical event, but also a spiritual reality that is happening today in each of us, because Christ enters our lives and awaits an answer, and it depends on us whether we will open the doors of our hearts to Him, or remain locked in our own fears, attachments and desires, and therefore this day is a call to a deep inner choice, to honesty before God and before ourselves, so that our faith is not only emotional, but becomes a path that leads us together with Christ through the cross to the resurrection, and therefore today, holding our willow branches in our hands, let us turn to Him not only with words, but with our whole lives, so that our "Hosanna" does not turn into rejection, but becomes the beginning of fidelity that leads to eternal life, and especially today, when our Ukrainian people are going through their Golgotha, when suffering, pain, sacrifice and hope are intertwined in the history of our Fatherland, we as the people of Christ are called not only to sympathize with the Gospel, but to live them, to carry our cross with faith and love, without losing hope even in the darkest moments, remembering that the path through suffering is not meaningless if it is with Christ, because it is through the cross that resurrection comes, and therefore we pray that the Lord will strengthen Ukraine, our people, every family, every soldier, every wounded heart, that we may remain faithful to Him until the end, and then together with Him we will enter into glory, to which honor and worship belong now and always, and forever and ever, amen.
