Today we will begin our mass in the hall of St Agnes in order to bless the palms and process around to the church. It is a short procession but despite this, in it we are accompanying our Lord as he enters Jerusalem. It is one of those bitter sweet moments, which seem to be scattered throughout Holy week. It has the feel of the victory, a celebration and yet, as we are reminded with the reading of the Passion Gospel, we know the rest of the story and in a few days the crowds that cheered will jeer and shout for Barabbas. All through the next week, almost in real time we take part in the events of 2000 years ago. We know what the disciples don’t and we too face our frailty, our ability to deny, betray and lie. Our fears and our failings all come to light when tested in this week. With all that in mind I was struck by the reading from the saints in the Office. St Andrew of Crete calls us to bow down and lay ourselves before Christ. Instead of cloaks and olive branches, we should offer ourselves in humility. Let us take this moment, while the children are still singing and people still waving, to offer ourselves to God.

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.

Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.
In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof, surely, of his power and godhead – his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptised into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.

From A sermon by St Andrew of Crete.