Matthew
21:01-11, 26:14-27:66
Pilgrim Ascent
 by Fr. Steven G. Oetjen
Reprinted by Permission of "The Arlington Catholic Herald"

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Matthew wrote to show that Christ was the
Messiah and fulfilled the Jewish prophecies.

As they drew near Jerusalem, entering Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent off two disciples with the instructions: "Go into the village straight ahead of you and you will immediately find an ass tethered and her colt with her.  Untie them and lead them back to me.  If anyone says a word to you, say, 'The Master needs them.'  The he will let them go at once."  This came about to fulfill what was said through the prophet: "Tell the daughter of Zion, Your king comes to you without display astride an ass, astride a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."  So the disciples went off and did what Jesus had ordered; they brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks on them, and he mounted.  The huge crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while some began to cut branches from the trees and lay them along his path.  The groups preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: "Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"  As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred to its depths, demanding, "Who is this?"  And the crowd kept answering, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

Then one of the Twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot went off to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"  They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he kept looking for an opportunity to hand him over."  On the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came up to Jesus and said, "Where do you wish us to prepare the Passover supper for you?"  He said, "Go to this man in the city and tell him, 'The Teacher says, My appointed time draws near.  I am to celebrate the Passover with my disciples in your house.'"  The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover supper.

When it grew dark he reclined at table with the Twelve.  In the course of the meal he said, "I assure you, one of you is about to betray me."  Distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"  He replied: "The man who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will hand me over.  The Son of Man is departing, as Scripture says of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.  Better for him if he had never been born."  Then Judas, his betrayer, spoke: "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"  Jesus answered, "It is you who have said it."

During the meal Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples.  "Take this and eat it," he said, "this is my body."   then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them.  "All of you must drink from it," he said.

Remember, you have heard the blasphemy.  What is your verdict"?  They answered, "He deserves death!"

Year after y3ear the Gospel passage for Palm Sunday recounts Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.  Together with his disciples and an increasing multitude of pilgrims he went up from the plain of Galilee to the Holy City.  The Evangelists have handed down to us three proclamations of Jesus concerning his Passion, like steps on his ascent, thereby mentioning at the same time the inner ascent that he was making on this pilgrimage."

With these words, Pope Benedict XVI began his homily for Palm Sunday in 2008.  He pointed out that Jesus' pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an ascent, in more than one sense.  First of all, it was an ascent in a literal or geographical sense.  To make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Galilee involved a net change in altitude of more than 3,000 feet.  That is quite the climb.

But the Holy Father also spoke of this pilgrimage as an "inner ascent."  Jesus knew that his pilgrimage to the holy city was ultimately beyond it and to the cross.  Outside the city walls, he will ascent Mount Calvary and give his life as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.  Three times he had told his apostles about this (see Mt 16:21; 17:22-23;  20:17-19), and these were as three "steps" on this inner ascent to the cross.  This is how St. Matthew narrates the third of these "steps" of the ascent: "And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver his to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day'" (Mt 20:17-19).

"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem."  Christ invites his disciples to join him in this pilgrim ascent, not only physically to the holy city, but also interiorly to the cross.  He invites us to climb the cross with him: "Behold, we are going up ..."

Pope Benedict continued to develop this idea in his 2011 book, "Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two," which covers the events of Holy week, from Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  In it, he wrote again about the pilgrimage to Jerusalem as both a geographical ascent and an inner one.  But then he continued to show how we, though living about 2,000 years later, are drawn up into the same pilgrim ascent.

At the "Holy, Holy, Holy" of every Mass, we take up the same words that the crowds exclaimed to welcome Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest' (called the "Benedictus" for short).  As Pope Benedict explained, "The early Church, then, was right to read this scene as an anticipation of what she does in her liturgy . . . The Benedictus also entered the liturgy at a very early stage.  For the infant Church, 'Palm Sunday' was not a thing of the past.  Just as the Lord entered th Holy City that day on a donkey, so too the Church saw him coming again and again in the humble form of bread and wine."

Our Lord Jesus is the pilgrim who comes to us again and again.  And when he comes to us, he takes us with him on his pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection.  We welcome him when he comes - and today, we even welcome him with palms in our hands - acclaiming, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.  Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest."

Unlike that crowd that welcomed him in the first Palm Sunday, we know where he is heading.  And we are called to join him on this pilgrim ascent to the cross and resurrection, his inner ascent of total, self-sacrificial love.