With Opened Bible

“Say to daughter Zion,

"Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass,

and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."(Matthew 21,5)

With the celebration of Palm Sunday, the universal Church begins the greatest of all weeks in the liturgical year. Jesus is acclaimed as a king by the crowds in Jerusalem. Amazingly enough, the Gospel of Matthew offers us a saying that was spoken long before the coming of Jesus. "Say to daughter Zion, " Behold, your King comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."(Cf. Zechariah 9:9)

By echoing this proclamation, Matthew allows us to see in Jesus the One who fulfills the prophecies of old. He is the King awaited by the Holy City, the one his ancestor David conquered when he defeated the Jebusites. (Cf. 2 Samuel 5:6-10)

However, unlike David, a powerful and unquestionable king, Jesus appears to him in the guise of humility and simplicity. He does not ride a horse (which is the mount of kings and soldiers) but that of the poor, the destitute. Indeed, the image of the donkey symbolizes his meekness and humility. It is what he had already proclaimed during his ministry: “I am meek and humble of heart." (Matthew 11:29)

This attitude is that of the true King, the true conqueror. Jesus is received in Jerusalem to fulfill later the mission for which he was sent into the world: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me, burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, 'As it is written of me on the scroll: Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"  (Hebrews 10:5-7) His mission would be revealed when these people, who cried "Hosanna," demanded that Pilate crucify him. "His blood be upon us and upon our children." (Matthew 27:25) And it is on the cross that he would truly be the King of Israel, the King of the entire universe.