MEDITATIO

“See your king” (Zec 9,9). Jeremiah speaks of this king thus: “No one is like you, O Lord, great are you, great and mighty is your name. Who would not fear you, King of the nations?” (10,6). This king, says Revelation, “has a name written on his cloak and on his thigh, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’” (19,16). Linen bands are his cloak; his thigh is his flesh. In Nazareth, where he took flesh, he was crowned as if with a diadem; in Bethlehem he was wrapped in linen bands as if with royal purple. Such were the first of his royal insignia. And it was against these insignia that his foes rose up to indicate their wish to remove his royalty from him: during his Passion they stripped him of his garments and his flesh was pierced with nails. Or rather, it was then that the rest of his royal insignia was given to him: he already had the crown and the purple; he received the scepter when “carrying the cross, he went out to Golgotha” (Jn 19,17). Then it was that, in Isaiah’s words: “upon his shoulder dominion rested” (9,5) and, as the Letter to the Hebrews says: “we see Jesus ‘crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death’”(2,9). See, then, your king coming to you, bringing happiness. He comes in gentleness, that he might be loved, not in power that he might be feared. He comes, seated on a donkey… The virtues proper to a king are those of justice and goodness. So your king is just: “he repays everyone according to their conduct” (Mt 16,27). And he is gentle; he is “your redeemer” (Is 54,5). He is poor, too. As the apostle Paul says: “he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2,7).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

At Jerusalem the crowd cried out: «Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel» (cf. Mk 11,10). The phrase «he who comes» is well said because he is always coming, he never fails us: «The Lord is close to those who call upon him in truth. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord» (Ps 145[144],18; 118[117],26). The gentle King of peace stands at our door… Soldiers here below, angels in heaven, mortals and immortals… cry aloud: «Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.» The Pharisees, however, stand aloof (Jn 12,19) and the priests are incensed by it. But the voices that sing God’s praises ring out without ceasing: creation is full of joy… That is why, on this very day, some Greeks, prompted by this tremendous acclamation to worship God with devotion, approached one of the apostles named Philip and said to him: «We would like to see Jesus». Note well: it is the whole crowd who carries out the task of herald and prompts these Greeks to be converted. Straight away these latter address Christ’s disciples: «We would like to see Jesus.» Those gentiles are imitating Zachaeus; not that they climb a sycamore tree [to see Jesus], but they make haste to rise up in their knowledge of God (Lk 19,3). «We should like to see Jesus»: not so much to behold his face but to bear his cross. For Jesus, who could see their desire, had unambiguously declared to those who were standing by: «Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified», calling «glory» the conversion of the gentiles. And he gave the name «glory» to the cross. For, from that day to this, the cross is glorified. Indeed, it is the cross that still today consecrates kings, adorns priests, protects virgins, gives constancy to hermits, reinforces the marriage bond and strengthens widows. It is the cross that makes the Church fruitful, brings light to the peoples, guards the desert, opens paradise.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

O Lord, everything you teach us might seem too difficult, too heavy to bear, if you were to speak to us from another level, but since you teach us more by example than in speech, you who are “Master and Teacher” (Jn 13:14), how could we venture to contradict you, we who are servants and pupils. What you say is perfectly true, what you command is perfectly just: the cross from which you speak is a proof of it. This blood flowing down in torrents is also its witness: it cries out with all its might (Gn 4:10). And finally, this death itself: if it could tear apart the veil of the Temple from a distance and split the hardest of rocks (Mt 27:51), how could it not do the same – and still more – to the hearts of believers? How could it not lead them to surrender themselves? Lord, we would repay you with love for love, and if our desire to follow you does not as yet come from our love for you, frail as it is, may it at least come from our love for your love. If you draw us after you “we will run to the fragrance of your sweet odors” (Sg 1:4 LXX). Not only do we wish to love and follow you but we are determined to despise this world… when we see how you, our leader, did not concern yourself with the enjoyments of this life. We behold you confronting death, not on your bed but on the wood that renders justice. King though you were, you wanted no other throne than this gallows… Drawn by the wisdom of your example as king we repel the call of this world and its pleasures and taking your cross on our shoulders we determine to follow you alone… Only grant us the help we need; make us strong enough to follow you.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team