Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feastday of the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem!

For us, today is an especially joyous feast. We have passed, Glory to God, through all of the days of Great Lent, we have finally attended church services regularly, we have been strengthened by the Divine Mysteries of Christ, and today have been vouchsafed to greet, all together in church, our meek and humble Saviour, making His way into Jerusalem on a donkey so as to voluntarily suffer on the Cross. This we have been unable to do for two years because of our sins. Glory to God, the Lord has been merciful and has again given us this opportunity!

Despite that joy that has warmed us today, times remain complicated and sorrowful. Our friends and relatives, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are being killed, are losing their homes, are suffering from a terrible war.

With such a juxtaposition, the question can be raised: how can we rejoice, when all around us there is so much evil and suffering? How can we rejoice today, knowing that in several days we will be remembering the Saviour’s death on the Cross? How could Christ rejoice on this day, knowing what was about to happen to Him, knowing what the priests, scribes, and pharisees of His favourite and chosen people would do with Him? How could He rejoice, looking at the faces of the people greeting Him, knowing that in several days their cries of “Hosanna Son of David” would be replaced with “Crucify Him?”

Today this very understandable and natural question is answered in a simple and wonderful way by the Holy Apostle Paul. The Apostle instructs everyone to rejoice always, for the Lord is always at hand. He continues that it behooves all of us to always make our requests to God with thanksgiving, meaning to pray to Him, and to always have hope in Him. If we act in such a way, the peace of God will be with us. Finally, Paul instructs everyone to think only about good things, i. e. not to have bad thoughts about others, and to always follow his example.

Christ, during His entrance into the holy city of Jerusalem before His death on the Cross, found Himself in a paradox of joy and sorrow. This is, of course, a natural state of being for every person. Christ, finding Himself in such a state, is a visual image of those words we heard today from the Epistle of St. Paul. Christ is joyful because He has the peace of God. And He has that divine peace because in everything He subjects His human will to the will of His heavenly Father. Let us also, in these joyous days mixed with sorrow, turn in prayer to God, find heavenly spiritual peace, and always be joyful in Christ.

priest Alexis