Sermones Dominicales

Sermons for Sundays IV a. Sermon I. On Septuagesima. Provoked by today’s reading to the course of the spiritual stadium, we must consider with a most solicitous mind, dearest brothers, how to run and from what to abstain. For a stadium, according to the letter, is said to be a fourth part of a mile, which Hercules is said to have first run in a single breath, at the end of which a post was placed in ancient times, with a crown woven from flowers set upon it; and there, for the sake of seizing this, a swift band of youths used to run, so that one of them, if he could run more quickly, might seize the prize, which we call a crown, first; and through this he would have the praise of the king and the onlookers, and then many gifts of rewards specifically. For many aimed at this with a common purpose, but all were overcome by one: he who was swifter in the race seemed more worthy in the collection of things than the others; and as much as the victor rejoiced, honored by the king’s gifts, so much did the vanquished grieve, not only deprived of the gifts, but also dishonored by the shame of their slowness. They did indeed abstain from foods that harm the race, but not equally; because the abstinence of him who was swifter in the race than the others was greater. Do not wonder, brothers, that the apostle gave an imitable example from pagan superstition for the protection of souls, so that some of you might think that in no way are the cults of the gentiles to be followed, from which the Christian religion, with Christ compelling us, has made us strangers.

First, let your charity know that from their rite the church has taken over for itself certain holy things, which are to be followed not carnally but spiritually; among these is that example which today’s reading has brought forth for us as most useful. For the end of the stadium, which was measured out for them to run, signifies the limit of the present life, which has been given to us for the course of our salvation, with the Lord saying and warning: Run, wretch, run; hurry, you have a hard time, lest you fall into death. For they used to run to seize a temporal and corruptible prize, so that they might receive earthly rewards from a mortal king; let us run better for a spiritual and incorruptible prize to be seized after the end of the flesh, so that we may receive eternal and unfailing rewards from the King of kings, who is eternal and immortal, hearing the desirable voice of him saying: Come, you who labor, etc. Indeed, they used to abstain from rich foods, so that they might be rendered swifter in the race; let us also abstain better not so much from foods as from vices, so that we may be swift for running. But that from a great crowd of youths one used to seize the prize, the rest running in vain; as far as we are concerned, dearest brothers, it is greatly to be feared; namely, lest we all be overcome by one, we who have set out to run for the crown. Hence the Apostle warns: Run in such a way that you may seize it.

And how shall we be able to grasp it, since we are unwilling to run; and if we ever begin to run, alas! weighed down by the thickness of our vices, we shamefully falter in the race! For although the whole church is divided into the clerical and lay orders, none of them runs for the crown of glory; but some, driven by insatiable greed, some defiled by unbridled lust, some swollen with the pride of worldly pomp, are not only unwilling to run, but do not even know how to open their eyes to seize the crown. Hence the Psalmist: All have turned aside, rendered useless together. And the Prophet: As the people, so the priest. For we are so blinded and thrust into a kind of pit of oblivion that, thinking nothing of the future, we believe there is no other life beyond this one in which we pursue our pleasures. And to say more, many in their madness, while they feed their greedy souls with voluptuous desires and rage like wolves against those subject to them, claim they wish to have another glory and renown. Such men lose the nature of man and take on the nature of four-footed beasts, who irrationally and shamelessly always attend to belly and lust. For the creator of things placed man above earthly creatures so that, using temporal things well, he might after death enjoy eternal things. What is to be done about this, dearest brothers? For we are all lost, unless we are soon lifted up by divine mercy.

For she herself calls us to run, saying: "Walk, lest the darkness overtake you." When she calls, if we wish to take up the race again, it will be permitted not for one alone, but for many to attain the crown. And just as not always in every race did the same one prevail, but he who had been defeated at one time, with renewed strength later emerged the victor; so we, if we have been defeated up to now, let us from now on strive to be victors. For the path of running is set before our eyes, on which, the slower we have been, so much the swifter we can be, if we wish. For how can we, sluggish and lazy, cease from the race, we who have not only the apostle as our monitor for the crown, but also our Savior Himself for receiving the denarius? For the supreme head of the household Himself, who planted the vineyard, that is, the holy Church, promises that He will give the denarius of heavenly reward to us who have entered to labor in the vineyard late, that is, at the end of the world, likening us to the first colonists, who bore the burden of the day and the heat from morning until evening. For you have heard Him, by a true and fitting parable of the Gospel, inviting workers to the cultivation of His vineyard in the morning, at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours, and giving an equal denarius to all when the work is finished.

If you desire the meanings of the hours which you have heard, learn that morning was from Adam up to Noah; the third hour from Noah up to Abraham; the sixth indeed from Abraham up to Moses; the ninth, moreover, from Moses up to the coming of our Lord and Savior; the eleventh was from the coming of the Lord up to the end of the world; in which we, the last workers, have entered the vineyard. But because we are idle and slow in our work, we cannot be certain of the denarius. Let us therefore strive to work more swiftly, so that we may be secure concerning the denarius; and because today we are called by the highest father of the household, let us not despise his call, but strive to enter the vineyard to labor. For he himself instituted the present fast for this purpose, that we might strive to wipe away the countless sins which we have committed through the delight of the flesh on the other days of the year, in this time through penance and mortification of the flesh. Moreover, this day, which exists as a gateway of the fasts, and takes from us the song of joy, that is, alleluia, throughout the whole continuation of its office expresses the voice of a penitent lamenting: teaching us that we ought to cease from immoderate joy, and remain in the weeping and tears of penance. On this night, therefore, with the name repeated more often, we have addressed alleluia itself; in a certain way desiring to retain it as a guest, saying to it: "Stay with us today," and so forth.

We have also bid it a final farewell, saying: "May a good angel accompany you, so that you may return to us with joy, that we may know we will not fully rejoice until, renewed by the body and blood of our Redeemer, we receive that same song with gladness." Indeed, the antiphon of the Mass, which is commonly called the Introit, laments with the penitents, saying: "The sorrows of death have surrounded me, and in my tribulation." The Collect, moreover, with its response, sounds the affliction of penance. Finally, that chant which we have substituted for the Alleluia (which is called the Tract because it has long chants) teaches the penitents to cry out to God with deep groaning. And thus the other words of the office, arranged in order, seem to express not the joy of the rejoicing, but the grief and sorrow of sinners. Now, if you ask about the name of the day which is called Septuagesima, know that it did not take its name from the number of days, as those who count so many days from it to the Paschal feast suppose, but from the perfection of the number from which that same number took its beginning. Moreover, that same number consists of seven times ten: of which the seven pertains to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the ten to the ten precepts of the law: which are so joined together that neither can the gifts of the Holy Spirit be kept by anyone without the precept of the law, nor the precepts of the law without the gift of the Holy Spirit: and whoever has kept one will without doubt have the other.

This number is fitting for those who rightly repent, so that they may be able to recover the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they lost by sinning, by especially observing the ten precepts of the law during this time. Otherwise, according to some, Septuagesima is so called literally because the Israelite people were held captive in Babylon for that many years, and returning after a long time thereafter, they consecrated a fast to God with the same number in commemoration of that same liberation. But because it is fitting for the penitent both according to history and according to allegory, let us strive in this time to bewail our sins, so that our souls after this life, which revolves in seven days, may be freed from Babylon, that is, from infernal captivity, and enriched with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and may joyfully receive from the King of kings both an unfading crown for the course and a denarius for the daily labor of the vineyard. Amen. SERMON II. IN QUADRAGESIMA.

Strive, dearest ones, who desire to cleanse your souls from sin, not to withdraw from this path of fasting and correction, which you have undertaken to follow, by any detour of shamefulness. For some of you, through the deceptions of the ancient enemy, have on this day a certain custom introduced, not so much to be followed as to be despised: that because the food of meat is not taken from us today, you think you can licitly perform every bodily pleasure and whatever shameful acts, seizing this opportunity in yourselves, so that because it is permitted for you to eat meat, it is also permitted to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh. For these deeds are not of Christians, but of pagans. For pagans, who are also called gentiles, celebrating the festival of their gods, that is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Minerva, and Venus, after immense gluttony of food and drink and shameful feasts, would gather at the theater, which is also called a brothel, outside the city: and there first with jests of various kinds, finally with prostitutes, who lurked in the caverns of that same theater, they would exhaust their bodies in lust. To this filth of shamefulness, therefore, as Paulus Orosius narrates, the same devil, whom they worshipped, provoked them; so that to whom they offered sacrifice from the victims of animals, they would also offer sacrifice from the strength of their own bodies.

The devil, indeed, is polluted and unclean; he requires a polluted and unclean sacrifice for himself. Hence, "pelliceus" is interpreted as "for the sake of skin," because he delights greatly in lust, which is excited by the beauty of skin. But as great as is the distance between the service of God and that of the devil, so great is the distance between the life of those who are called Christians from Christ, and the life of those who, subject to the devil, serve him in all things. For this reason, brothers, we must cease from this and from every evil custom on the present day, since this day is not only the head of fasts, but also of the ages. It is, therefore, to be venerated with great devotion and religion, and not to be polluted with lustful pleasures, because it seems to be consecrated by name and mystery above others. Moreover, it is called by the Lord the Lord's day, because He placed it first in the order of days, and because, having overcome death, which He underwent for us unworthy ones, and having conquered the enemy, from whose power He snatched us, He powerfully rose from the dead on this day, and established it for us to be observed in honor of His resurrection. How, then, do we desire to rise from the death of the soul, if we are unwilling to honor the day of the Lord's resurrection? And by what reasoning do we think to purify our minds through fasts, if we wish to enter polluted through the gate of fasts?

Perhaps someone unbridled, more obedient to the pleasures of the body than to the laws of God, will answer me as I rebuke such things and reprove my own sins along with the iniquities of others: "You, who preach that the natural union of male and female and the bond of love established from the beginning must be dissolved, ask for things utterly impossible and useless, that by some fast I should abstain from a woman, who is my own flesh, just as from foods." To him I, although a sinner, will reply in a few words: because God did not give the goods of the world for us to abuse, but to use justly. For marriage, like the other riches of the world, while held justly, is good; when held unjustly, it turns into sin. Hence Gregory: whatever we receive for the use of life, we turn to the use of vices. Nor do I preach the separation of such a sacred union, but I prescribe abstinence for the brief period of thirty-six days. For what does it profit to abstain from meats, and not to lay aside carnal works? For you, who have lived the whole year placed in these and other delights, ought at least in this small space to cease for God's sake. For why are you called "man" from "virtue of the body," if you do not have this virtue in your soul, so that you cannot fast for God, who gave you everything and from whom you daily seek greater things, for a tenth part of the year?

For whoever examines it carefully finds that no more than thirty-six days, which are the tithes of the year, are observed in that same abstinence. For since a whole year consists of 366 days, if 330 are subtracted, the same number of days I have mentioned are consecrated to fasting. Of these six days, therefore, which even with their nights consist of 150 hours, the tenth part is fifteen hours. But because from these we are unable to gather a whole day with the following night, which we might add to the aforesaid number and devote to fasting, ecclesiastical custom has established that what is not rendered in that period be fulfilled by fasting from meat and from carnal pleasures on the Sundays of the same season. For on these days, because they are consecrated in the very name of God, the refreshment of food is granted and the license to sin is withdrawn. What brings life and is better is given to us; what brings death and is worse is taken away from us. But if we do not pollute these days with vices and carnal defilement, we certainly restore the full tithes of the entire year even through these. But since to us, regenerated in the sacred font and tasting the flesh not of a figurative but of a true lamb, it has been said by the Lord Himself, "Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven," Christian religion has established that not only these thirty-six on account of the tithes of the year, but also with them the four which begin from the head of the fast, on account of the perfection of so great a mystery, be changed into forty days of fasting.

This Lenten fast indeed has great authority, from the Law, from the Prophets, and from the Gospel. For the lawgiver Moses, in order to receive the Law, fasted for forty days. Likewise, Elias, the greatest of the Prophets, who merited to be snatched up to heaven in a fiery chariot, when he was being pursued by Jezebel, was first fed on angelic food, and afterwards abstained from all food for the same number of days. SERMON III. ON PASSION SUNDAY. As the season of Lent now passes and the joys of the most holy Resurrection draw near, the mention of the Lord's Passion occurs to us annually, dearest brethren, which today strikes the universal Church with a tearful account. And although very many days remain from this one up to that which merited to see its Author crucified in a special way; nevertheless, by the holy fathers, the recitation of this same Passion is entrusted to us for these days that follow, especially by the blessed Gregory, who in all ecclesiastical offices, both diurnal and nocturnal, from this point up to the Paschal feast, introduces the words and lament of the Passion: suggesting that we ought to weep for Him, without whom we can have no perfect joy. Therefore, whoever of us trust that we are members of our Redeemer, let us feel the grief and injury of so great a Head. Whence the prophet: Every head is languid, and every heart is sorrowful; from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no health in it. And the Apostle: If one member suffers, all the members suffer together.

But because we know that a higher and more honorable member, namely Christ, who is our head and crown, suffered, let us, the lower members, suffer with him: especially since he chose to suffer not for any fault of his own, but for our redemption, so that he might redeem us from the ancient slavery of the devil and make us perpetual inhabitants of the heavenly homeland, from which we were excluded as captives. For he, ineffably merciful, wished to purge our sins and our ancient iniquities not with gold or any kind of metal, or with cloaks of beautiful variety, nor even with the sacrifices of other animals, but with his own body sacrificed on the altar of the cross to God the Father, and with his most precious blood poured out. Whence the prophet: "Truly he bore our weaknesses, he carried our infirmities." And our mediator himself said to the Father: "You did not demand a burnt offering for sin: then I said, 'Behold, I come.'" And the meaning is: "O God the Father, because I did not see you seeking a burnt offering of animals for the redemption of the human race, I immediately said, 'Behold, I come to be sacrificed for the salvation of my people.'" Behold, dearest brothers, we have heard that Christ was sacrificed for us: whence we can both rejoice and be sad: rejoice, because it is a blessed fault that had such and so great a Redeemer; be sad, because we see no imitator of such a great passion.

For he himself, having died bodily, requires a sacrifice not only from the death of our body, if necessary, but from the correction of life and the humiliation of the spirit. That is to say, that our spirit, marveling at such great and ineffable humility of its creator, may tremble, and, overcoming the allurements of the flesh, may have a certain compassion with him who suffered. Whence it is: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. And although it is impossible for our bodily frailty to follow his immense divinity, yet we follow him well according to the measure of our humanity, if we slay the vices of the body through fasting, prayers, and vigils: if we rejoice to remain clean and pure before his eyes. Whence the prophet: Wash yourselves, be clean, and so forth. But how are we about to lay down our lives for him in the face of the imminent rage of the persecutor, when we cannot, for love of him, fast even for a short time from vices and from any foods? In what, therefore, do we imitate his passion, when we do not restrain our bodies from any filth? Moreover, what is worse, we are strongly opposed to his precepts, as if we were contrary to an enemy. For while he cries out in the Old Testament: You shall not kill, you shall not commit theft, and the other precepts of the law; as if provoking his wrath against us, we, insane and mindless, commit adultery, and kill, and commit theft: moreover, all vices, the more they are forbidden to us, the more we take care to pursue and love them.

Similarly, as he threatens in the New Testament of the Gospel: 'Everyone who has called his brother "racha," and everyone who has called him "fool," will be liable to the fire of Gehenna'; we, on the contrary, touched by the zeal of envy, proudly and obstinately heap all manner of abusive reproaches upon our brothers. Hence we ought to restrain our mind from such things and from similar ones, if we hope to be partakers of that redemption. For he is the true priest and pontiff of future goods, who offered to his Father God not the blood of goats and bulls, but himself, namely the spotless lamb, cleansing our conscience from dead works, that is, from sins; and through this he once entered into the holy place, so that he might now appear before the face of God the Father on our behalf. For other priests, according to the custom of the old law, entered the holy place once each year with the flesh of slaughtered animals; this priest, however, who came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, entered the holy place once, not in each year, but in the last year of his life, having sacrificed himself on the altar of the cross, so that he might open the secrets of the Father to servants following him through faith, secrets which he bestows for them to possess after the end.

Other priests, once the time of sacrifice was completed, would take care to return to their own homes, intending to come back to the temple the following year; but He, after completing the mystery of His passion and resurrection, returned to His own palace in heaven, not to come again the following year, but at the end of the world, to examine anew the merits of the good and the evil, and to give rewards to the good and punishments to the evil. What shall we do on that day, brothers, on which we will have to render an account not only of our evil deeds, but also of our idle words? And if we consider all the faults of the tongue, which we count as nothing, what is to be feared from our other members—namely, our hands and feet and the rest—which without doubt we know have done many unlawful things? For if we pay the penalty for all the faults we have committed, we are eternally damned and lost. Therefore, each one of us, as much as he loves his soul, should blot out past sins through penance, and take care not to repeat them, and what he has once extinguished through the grace of God, he should not kindle again. For he who repeats a sin over which he has already groaned provokes God to anger, so that when called, He will not hear him. Hence, through Solomon it is said: "I called, and you refused; you despised all my counsel, and you neglected my reproofs; I too will laugh at your destruction, and I will mock you when what you feared has come upon you." How fearsome, most beloved brothers, that our Redeemer threatens to laugh at our destruction!

Therefore, let us constantly open the ears of our mind to His precepts, so that we may see Him in judgment not as terrible, but as gentle. And how will we be able to endure Him terrible and angry against us, if in the present life we can scarcely bear the flash of lightning or the thunder of His power for fear? And if we are terrified for a time by the motion of a single creature, with what strength will we be able to await the Creator coming with fire to judge, shaking not only the earth but also the heavens? For as the Psalmist says: "Fire will burn before Him, and a mighty storm will rage around Him." And the Judge Himself says through the prophet: "Once more, and I will move not only the earth, but also the heavens." Fear, brothers, the coming of that Judge, in whose determined judgment there will be no space for redemption. Cease from depraved habits and from the evil custom of a shameful life, and strive to suffer with your Redeemer, so that you may be able to rise with Him from the tombs of vices and happily ascend to the heavenly realms after the judgment. Amen.

SERMON IV. ON PALM SUNDAY. You must, dearest brothers, with the delight of the present day, rejoiced, diligently recognize the mysteries with which it shines, so that the learned mind may inwardly discuss the joys of gladness which we outwardly celebrate, whence they arise. But lest an excess of words should generate weariness in your minds, especially since the office of this day is drawn out in very long chants and most pleasing jubilations concerning our God; concerning its very name, which is distinguished by various terms, I will first endeavor to set forth a few things for you. For it is called the Day of Palms, or of Flowers, and of Branches, as well as Hosanna, the Pascha of Petition or of Catechumens, and of the Washing of Heads. Although these are named in common usage, all nevertheless retain a certain and fitting signification. Therefore, the Day of Palms is so called because on it our Lord, sitting on a donkey, for the salvation of the human race about to suffer, went to Jerusalem; a very great crowd of rejoicing people met him with branches of palms and various trees, shouting: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Day of Flowers is also so called for this reason, that holy mother Church, in commemoration of such great joy, on this day above others in the annual cycle wished to carry blessed and consecrated flowers while singing, so that she might joyfully meet her Redeemer. Nor is it not also called the Day of Branches, because for the same reason not only palms, but also green branches are carried today by the children of the Church.

It is called Hosanna, because the people of the Hebrews, both those preceding and following the Lord, seemed to sing Hosanna, which in Latin is interpreted as "Salvifica," to that same Lord. It is called the Pasch of petition or of the competents, because on this day the symbol, that is, the credulity of the holy faith, was handed over to the competent neophytes, so that those who were hastening to receive the grace of God at the Paschal solemnity might recognize the faith which they ought to confess. For they are called competents, as if meaning those who seek together, that is, those who seek the grace of God. The common people call this day the day of the washing of heads, because on that day it was the custom to wash the heads of the infants who were to be anointed on Holy Saturday, lest, having become soiled by the observance of Lent, they should approach the anointing. Moreover, this week is called greater, either because greater sobriety is observed in it, or because a greater office than in the other weeks is celebrated in it.

These brief remarks on the names of this day suffice: some of them, as they are understood literally, so they remain; others signify something else allegorically. In all Scripture, both Old and New Testament, the palm has always signified victory. Therefore, by the branches of palms is designated that victory by which our Lord, through his death, destroyed our death, and by the trophy of the cross overcame the prince of death, the devil. By the flowers is expressed the fragrance of virtue, with which captive faithful souls accompany their king as he makes his way to Jerusalem, that is, to the holy Church; so that, celebrating the Pasch, that is, the passage, with him, they may deserve to rise again with him to heavenly things. By the branches of trees are signified the sayings of the ancient prophets, which he who instructs the simple hearts of brothers and the less learned with examples gathers and strews in the path, lest they wander from the way of truth. Moreover, that Hosanna, so often repeated and redoubled by the people, signifies the unity of our faith in which we ought to live; because, although there is in the multitude of the faithful a diversity of rank, sex, and age, yet with one voice and with one praise of confession we ought to cry out to our Savior, saying: Hosanna, that is, "Salvifica" or "Salvum fac": for it is a Hebrew word, which expressed in Latin sounds, "Salvifica," or "Salvum fac populum tuum," or "totum mundum.

Since, indeed, such names are applied to this day from the fitting significations of the mysteries, it must be shown to you, dearest ones, in whatever brief discourse, by which works of our Saviour it is illuminated. For, as the holy evangelist relates, six days before the old Passover, which are counted from yesterday, Jesus came to Bethany, to the house of Simon the leper, where he had raised Lazarus, and they made a supper for him there; where also Mary, taking a pound of ointment, anointed the feet of the Lord and wiped them with her hair; at which deed, with Judas the traitor being indignant, Jesus replied in praise of the woman: "She has done a good work upon me," and the rest that follows in the Passion concerning a matter of this kind. Following which custom of good work, the holy man Gregory, on this very day, that is yesterday, occupied himself entirely with giving alms and washing the feet of the poor, so that what the most devout woman did to the head, that is, to Christ, he did to his members, that is, to the poor. Whence the same day, remaining without its own office, is thus entitled in the Sacramentary: "On Saturday there is a rest from the public station, when the lord pope gives alms." Concerning which deed, if you wish to pluck an allegorical flower, know that ointment signifies justice, and therefore it is said to have been a pound. For he who perfectly keeps justice undoubtedly washes the feet of the Lord; and he who, by living well, loves mercy, anoints his feet with ointment.

And he who gives abundantly to the poor wipes the Lord’s feet with his own hair. Therefore the house filled with the scent of the ointment—that is, the whole world—and the fame of such a most devoted woman, and the virtue of the faithful who imitate her in such things. For that the Son of God, about to suffer six days before Easter, came to Bethany signifies that the man whom, created on the sixth day, he had lost through serpentine deceit, he was hastening to redeem with his own blood on that same sixth day, passing through Bethany—that is, through the house of obedience. From that aforementioned city of Bethany, departing on the next day—that is, the fifth day before Easter, which is today—he sent his two disciples to Jerusalem, saying to them: Go into the village that is before you, and you will find a she-ass and a colt: untie them and bring them to me. They, untying them, brought them to Jesus, and placed their garments upon them, and made him sit upon them. When the crowd that had come for the feast day heard that Jesus was proceeding to Jerusalem, they took palm branches, came out to meet him, and cried out: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

But because these deeds of the Lord, recorded in the words of the evangelist, are sufficiently clear on the literal level, since they happened just as they sound, the mystical sense must be unfolded for us for the sake of brevity, which is hidden from all except the wise. For the two disciples signify two orders of preachers, one among the circumcision, the other among the Gentiles, or Peter and Philip, whom Christ sent to Jerusalem, that is, the holy Church; of whom one, that is, Philip, led Samaria like a she-ass; the other, that is, Peter, led Cornelius from among the Gentiles like a colt to the faith of Christ. Likewise, by the two animals, two peoples are figured, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, which were tied up at the arrival of the disciples, because each people was bound by the chains of their own sins. The garments of the Apostles are either the virtues of doctrine or the works of righteousness. Whence the Psalmist: Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. But the great crowd, which spread their garments on the road, signifies the innumerable multitude of martyrs, who, stripping themselves of their own clothing, make way for the simpler ones, by which they may be able to reach the vision of peace. For by the little ass on which he sat, the simple hearts of the Gentiles are figured, which, like untamed beasts, remained bound by no reins of discipline, moving toward idols as a mule is led, which the Lord, by presiding and ruling, led to the vision of eternal peace.

Finally, it is believed that this was not done without great sacramental significance, that on this day the Lord, heading to Jerusalem, specially employed the services of beasts of burden; also that he wished palms, branches, and various floral ornaments to be carried around him, and that he be called king and Lord—all of which, when he often came to Jerusalem before, he refused to have done. For he entered with such glory precisely because, knowing that the time of his passion was now imminent, he compelled the minds of the Jews to be stirred up against him, so that through the death of his body he might destroy the death of our souls. Therefore, O thrice-blessed ones, we who recall his passion—even if we cannot all die for him, and, having pacified the calumniators of the Church, we have no war with them—let us nevertheless take care to subdue the vices of our members, so that after the sorrow of the passion, receiving the joys of the resurrection, we may be able to rise with him from vices to the height of virtues. Amen.