The Venerable Bede: Homily 11:3: Palm Sunday

 

The Venerable Bede: Homily 11:3: Palm Sunday

 

The Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who had come down to earth from to suffer for the salvation of the human race, as the hour of his passion was drawing near, willed to draw near the place of his passion. Even by this it was to become apparent that he would not be suffering unwillingly but of his own volition. He willed to come [riding] upon a donkey, and be called 'king' and praised by the crowd, so that everyone, guided again by this, might recognize that the Christ whom once upon a time the promise  of the prophecy had designated the one who would come in this manner. He willed to come five days before the Passover, we have learned from the gospel of John, that by this again he might show that he was the stainless lamb who would take away the sins of the world.

 

It was commanded that the paschal lamb, by whose immolation the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt should be selected five days before the [feast of] the Passover, that is, on the tenth [day of the lunar] at sundown. This signified the one who was going to redeem us by his blood, since five days before the [feast of] Passover (that is, today), accompanied by the great joy and praise of people going ahead and following, he came into God's temple, and he was there teaching daily. At last, after five days, having observed up to that point the sacraments of the old Passover, he brought them to perfection, and he handed over the new sacraments to his disciples to be observed henceforth. [Then], having gone out to the Mount of Olives, he was seized by the Jews and crucified [the next] morning. He redeemed us from the sway of the devil on that very day when the ancient people of the Hebrews cast aside the yoke of slavery under the Egyptians by the immolation of a lamb.

 

Our Lord, the counterpart of the paschal lamb, five days before he entered upon his suffering, came to the place of his passion, to teach that he was the one concerning whom Isaiah had predicted, Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb he became silent before his shearers and opened not his mouth; and a little before that, But he was wounded for our iniquities, and by his stripes we were healed. But the hearts of the envious leaders preferred to persecute him in everything that he providentially carried out rather than to believe in him. The wretched men strove mightily to hand over to death the author of life rather than to be themselves brought to life by him. Let us, avoiding the blindness of these faithless ones, follow the example rather of those who faithfully praised our Lord, and let us investigate thoroughly his mystical path by our mystical interpretation, as is proper.