ENTRY OF OUR LORD INTO JERUSALEM (PALM SUNDAY)
Tone 1 Troparion
By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your Passion, You confirmed the universal resurrection, O Christ God. Like the children with the palms of victory, we cry out to You, O Vanquisher of Death: “Hosanna in the highest!// Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord.”
Tone 4 Troparion
When we were buried with You in baptism, O Christ God, we were made worthy of eternal life by Your Resurrection. Now we praise You and sing: “Hosanna in the highest!// Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!”
Tone 6 Kontakion
Sitting on Your throne in Heaven, carried on a foal on earth, O Christ God, accept the praise of angels and the songs of children, who sing:// “Blessed is He Who comes to recall Adam!”
Tone 4 Prokeimenon
Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord. / God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us. (Ps. 117:26b, 27b)
V. O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever. (Ps. 117:1)
Philippians 4:4-9 (Epistle)
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Tone 1
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! (Ps. 97:1)
V. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Ps. 97:5)
John 12:1-18 (Gospel)
Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.” Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.
On Christ as the affirmation of all good
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea (II Corinthians 1:19).
Christ is not light and darkness, but only light. Christ is not truth and falsehood, but only truth. Nor is Christ life and death; He is only life. Nor is He strength and weakness; He is only strength. Nor is He love and hate; He is only love. He is the “yea” for every good, and in Him there is no vacillating between “yea” and “nay.” His teaching is all-pure, all-true, all-light and all-loving toward mankind. His path is accurately hewn and He does not permit swerving either to the left or to the right. Not even a shadow of sin can pass over His teaching or find a place on His path. His Person is the incarnation of goodness; all that is good is in Him, and all that is sinful, false, malicious and unjust is outside of Him. This is the teaching, this is the path, and this is the Person of Christ that the apostles of God preached: a teaching that is the affirmation of good and the revelation of the infinite treasury of good; a path that leads to the realization and the eternal enjoyment of that good; a Person Who contains in Himself all good and the complete affirmation of good. Brethren, let us also adhere to this unique Person, this unique path, and this unique teaching. Almighty Lord, help us by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, so that our insignificant life on earth will become an affirmation of good and not a denial of good. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
— Velimirovic, Saint Nikolai. The Prologue of Ohrid. Sebastian Press Publishing House.
Called to Be Saints
St. Paul wrote to the Romans: “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints….” (Romans 1:7). To the Corinthians he wrote: “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” (1 Cor. 1:2). When Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome and Corinth, reminding them that they are “called to be saints”, he was not writing to people likely to figure in stained-glass windows, but to a motley collection of shop-keepers, minor civil servants, converted prostitutes, prizefighters and slaves. These were the people he called God’s “holy ones”–called to be like Christ their Lord, agents and instruments of His continuing work in the world. These were the “saints”. And so, by God’s grace, are we. Every Christian is called to perfection and is capable of revealing the image of God hidden in him. But only a few become so transfigured through the Holy Spirit during their earthly life that they can be recognized as saints by other Christians and officially canonized as such by the Church. This should not draw our attention away from the fact that every baptized Christian is called to be a saint. In the New Testament the saints were not a spiritual elite but the whole body of Christians. That never meant that all Christians were regarded as having reached a sinless perfection. In that sense there are no saints in the New Testament, for even the best of Christians are far from perfect. The only saints the New Testament knows are forgiven sinners who are always ready to place their utter dependence on God’s mercy and grace. Thus, there are the Saints, with a capital “S”, those officially recognized and canonized by the Church, and there are the saints with a small “s”, who are the whole body of Christians–you and I included. We, too, are called to be men and women in whom others can in some way meet the living Christ. We can appreciate our call to be saints when we realize that saints become saints not so much because of the unusual things they do but rather because of the unusual degree to which they give themselves to Christ. By our daily faithfulness to Christ, each of us is a saint in the making. Made in the image of God and baptized in the Trinity, every Christian has the potential of sainthood.
Bp. Kallistos Ware writes, “It must not for one moment be thought that there are no saints except those publicly honored as such. Those who are mentioned in the calendar form but a small fraction of the whole Communion of Saints; besides them there is a great host whose names are known to God alone, and these are venerated collectively on the Feast of All Saints (observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost).”
— Coniaris, Anthony M. Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life . Light & Life Publishing Company.
Sunday Bulletin April 21, 2024