The Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem, known as the Palm Sunday, is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on the Sunday before the Holy Pascha.
Just several days before His Crucification, Lord Jesus was greeted by multitudes of people, with hosannas and blessings, upon His entrance into Jerusalem, riding a colt. The people gathered for the feast of the Passover came out, holding palm branches in their hands, to meet their Messiah, laying their clothes under the feet of the young donkey that bore our Lord Jesus Christ. Children were glorifying the Lord: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” (John 12, 13), and today, Christians sing in a similar manner, although we are aware, that Lord Jesus did not come as a national hero liberating the people from the Roman conquerors, for Jesus Himself said that his kingdom is not from this world. Christ came to liberate not just a nation, but the entire humanity, and not from earthly conquerors, but from the enslavement to the consequence of sin – death and everlasting darkness and suffering.
This bright Feast was celebrated today by the entire Orthodox Church, and numerous Chisinau church-goers gathered this morning in the Nativity of the Lord Cathedral, to join Metropolitan Vladimir and the Cathedral clergy, celebrating the Divine Liturgy.
Praying amid the people in the Cathedral was President Igor Dodon with his family.
The Palm Sunday is the door to the suffering and passions of Christ, who was the Only One aware of the dreadful truth that many of those greeting Him with hosannas would shout furiously “Crucify Him!” within just less than a week.
This Sunday calls us to sobriety and spiritual concentration on the passion of Christ, urging us to share the pain of the wounds and crucification of the Lord.
The coming Great Week is the culmination of the Great Lent, holding within the essence of Christianity – compassion with the Lord, in order to co-Resurrection with Him.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Mass-Media Relations