And the Disciples Followed Him

Since classical antiquity, the palm branch has always been a symbol of victory. In the ancient Rome, the goddess Victoria—the deified personification of victory—is often depicted as a winged woman holding aloft a palm-branch.

In ancient Greece, the winner of the Olympics is awarded with palm branch as a sign of victory. So it is that the pilgrims greeted Christ with palm branches in their hands as He processed into Jerusalem.

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” They shouted thinking that He was the Messiah, a mighty conqueror who was to bring victory to His people and be enthroned as the King of Israel.

But where is His victory, and where is His throne?

As we read in the Gospel, the victory of Christ was not a military conquest, nor an Olympic feat, but a triumph over sin and death. His throne was the cross. Christ’s triumphal procession was his ascension onto the cross, where He was enthroned, where He claimed his kingship, where He was invested with the power and the glory of God.

This procession, which took place over 2000 years ago, which we participate in today through the liturgy, is a foreshadowing of what is to come—Christ’s final victory.

In a way, Christ’s conquest only began there at the cross. He was the champion; He has been crowned, but it is YOU and I who are fighting in the arena Today. At this very moment, He is conquering sin and death and the prince of this world in YOU and in me.

Just as in the liturgy we follow him on the way, so we are to follow in His footsteps unto Eternal Life. In other words, we are not mere spectators, we’re actors of this Divine Mystery.

So, unless we put on Christ, humbled ourselves by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, we will not be victorious. But if we embrace our tribulations and face our enemies, we will receive the palm of victory.

Image: Pietro Lorenzetti, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Public Domain