21 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:9
Today the Church walks with Jesus into Jerusalem, and the Great Fast gives way to the Week of the Passion, which our tradition calls Hasha Week. Hosanna Sunday is one of the days Kerala Christians love most, and its rite is simple enough for every family to follow. First, the people gather before the Holy Qurbana, often outside the church or at a nearby cross, each holding a tender coconut leaf, the kuruthola. Second, the celebrant prays over the palms and blesses them, sprinkling them with holy water. Third, the Gospel of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem is proclaimed, so that we hear what we are about to do. Fourth, the procession moves toward the church and around it, with the cross going before, while everyone waves the palms and sings the Hosanna hymns, as the crowds did on the road from Bethphage. Fifth, the procession enters the church, and the Holy Qurbana continues with the readings of the day: the King we have welcomed with palms now comes to us on the altar. Afterwards the families take the blessed palms home and keep them in the prayer corner. On Pesaha a small cross folded from the blessed palm is pressed into the Pesaha appam; and many parishes keep the old palms to burn them for the ashes at the beginning of next year's Great Fast. So the palm of welcome, the bread of the Supper and the ashes of repentance are woven into one year of faith. Customs vary from eparchy to eparchy and parish to parish; follow the order your parish uses.
The first reading is the blessing of the dying Jacob over his sons. To Judah he says: “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.” And then a promise that Israel treasured for centuries: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.” Strangely, the next line speaks of a donkey: “Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes.” The Fathers saw here the King from Judah who would come riding on a donkey's colt, and whose garments would be washed in the wine of his own blood. The reading also gives the blessing of Joseph, the son who suffered at the hands of his brothers and saved them: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him; they shot at him and pressed him hard. Yet his bow remained taut, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.” In the King from Judah and the rejected brother who saves his family, the Church has always seen one face: Jesus, the Son of David, who goes up to Jerusalem to be rejected and to save.
Zechariah's prophecy is the key to everything that happens on the road from Bethany: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Kings rode into cities on war horses. This King comes on a farmer's animal, and the prophet explains why: “He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.” He wins his kingdom not by killing but by dying, and he seals it “because of the blood of my covenant with you”. And he calls out to all who are trapped: “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.” In Kerala, where elephants and caparisons and loud processions mark our feasts, the Lord's chosen mount is a quiet rebuke and a great comfort. He does not come to frighten us; he comes humble, to set prisoners free.
Paul, writing to Gentile Christians in Rome, uses an image every Kerala farmer understands: grafting. The Church of Israel is a cultivated olive tree with a holy root. Some branches were broken off; the Gentiles, “a wild olive shoot”, have been grafted in “to share the rich root of the olive tree”. Paul's warning is sharp: “do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.” “So do not become proud, but stand in awe.” And he insists that God has not finished with his people: “God has the power to graft them in again.” This reading belongs on Hosanna Sunday. As we enter the Week of the Passion, the Church forbids us to blame the Jewish people as a whole for the death of Jesus; the Second Vatican Council teaches that the Jews remain most dear to God, whose gifts and call are irrevocable, and that his Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews of that time or of today. Christ died for the sins of all of us, and we are the branches who live from the root.
Then the Gospel. Jesus sends two disciples to bring a donkey and her colt, and Matthew tells us why: “This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet.” The crowds spread their cloaks on the road, cut branches from the trees, and shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Hosanna is a Hebrew cry meaning “Save us, we pray”, taken from Psalm 118, the pilgrims' psalm. “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’” That question will echo through the whole week. Matthew goes straight on to the temple: Jesus drives out the sellers and buyers and overturns the tables, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” Then “the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them”, and the children go on crying “Hosanna to the Son of David”. When the authorities object, Jesus quotes the psalm: “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself.” The King's first act in his city is to cleanse the house of prayer and to heal; and the purest praise comes from children. Today, as our children wave their palms, let us ask whether our own hearts, our homes and our parishes are houses of prayer, and whether the cry Hosanna on our lips today will still be there on Friday.
Theme: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Hosanna Sunday: the King from Judah, the humble King of peace, the cleansing of the house of prayer, and the branches grafted onto a holy root.
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his.” Genesis 49:10
“Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”” Revelation 5:5
Apply: Give Christ the throne of one area of your life you have kept for yourself.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9
“The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”” Matthew 21:9
Apply: Choose gentleness over force in one conflict at home or at work this week.
“these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah 56:7
“He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”” Matthew 21:13
Apply: Gather your family for prayer every evening this week, and let the house be quieter.
“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.” Psalm 52:8
“do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.” Romans 11:18
Apply: Refuse every word of contempt this week, and pray for the Jewish people and for all Christians.
The King promised to Judah comes humble on a donkey, cleanses the house of prayer and heals; the children greet him with Hosanna.
We are branches grafted by grace; let our Hosanna last through the whole week, to the Cross and the empty tomb.
Take-home resolution: Keep the blessed palm, pray with your family every evening, and follow the Lord through every service of the Week of the Passion.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we carried blessed palms and sang Hosanna, as the crowds did on the road into Jerusalem. The Great Fast now gives way to the Week of the Passion. The palms we take home will be folded into a cross for the Pesaha appam, and next year they will become the ashes of a new Great Fast.
Long ago Jacob blessed his son Judah: the scepter shall not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10). And he spoke of a donkey's colt bound to the vine. Today the Son of David from the tribe of Judah comes riding on that colt.
Zechariah tells us what kind of King he is: lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He does not come on a war horse. He comes to command peace to the nations and to set free the prisoners of hope by the blood of the covenant.
Paul warns us Gentile Christians not to boast: it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you (Romans 11:18). This week we will hear the Passion. Let us never blame the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. He died for the sins of all of us.
The crowds cried: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! (Matthew 21:9). Hosanna means save us, we pray. Then Jesus cleansed the temple: my house shall be called a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13). He healed the blind and the lame, and the children went on singing.
The same crowd that sings Hosanna today will shout Crucify on Friday. Let our Hosanna last all week. Let our homes be houses of prayer, let us come to Pesaha, to Passion Friday and to the Easter Qurbana, and let us follow our humble King to the Cross and to the empty tomb. Amen.
Children, today we waved palm leaves and sang Hosanna, just like the children in Jerusalem! Jesus loved hearing their praise.
Jesus came riding on a little donkey, not on a big war horse, because he is a gentle King of peace. Take your blessed palm home and keep it near the cross in your prayer corner.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of David and King of peace, you came to Jerusalem humble and riding on a donkey, and the children cried Hosanna. Today we take up their cry: save us, we pray. Cleanse the temple of our hearts and make our homes houses of prayer. Keep us humble, grafted by grace into the olive tree of your people, and let our Hosanna not fall silent when the week grows dark, but follow you to the Cross and to the joy of your Resurrection. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Today the Great Fast opens into the Week of the Passion, and the Church walks with her King into Jerusalem. The four readings follow one question: what kind of king? Jacob promises that the scepter will stay with Judah, and pictures a donkey’s colt tied to a vine. Zechariah sees the king come, humble, on that very animal, and bringing peace in place of chariots. Paul reminds the Gentile believers that they live from Israel’s root, grafted in by grace, and must not boast. Matthew shows Jesus riding into the city to the cry of Hosanna, going straight to the Temple, and healing the blind and the lame. The key words are scepter, humble, root and Hosanna.
Setting.
Jacob is about to die in Egypt. He gathers his twelve sons and tells them “what will happen to you in days to come” (49:1). This is the Testament of Jacob, a poem that many scholars consider very old, in which each son stands for a future tribe. Some of the words are hard to understand, and translations differ. The reading takes the two longest blessings: Judah, who will rule, and Joseph, who suffered and was upheld.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Judah is a lion’s whelp;” (49:9)
The Book of Revelation takes up this picture: “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered”. When John turns to look, he sees a Lamb, standing as if slaughtered (Revelation 5:5–6). That is the surprise of today’s Gospel as well.
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him;” (49:10)
A note on the text: the Hebrew here is famously difficult (literally “until Shiloh comes”). The NRSV reads it, by a small change, as “until tribute comes to him”. The ancient Greek and Syriac versions read “until he comes to whom it belongs”, and the POC is close to that: “until its heir comes”. Ancient Jewish tradition, in the Targums, also read the verse of the King Messiah. So do the Fathers.
“Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,” (49:11)
Only a very rich man could tie an animal to a vine and let it eat. It is a picture of overflowing plenty in the days of this king. Christian readers could not miss the colt today, nor the robe washed “in the blood of grapes”.
“Yet his bow remained taut, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,” (49:24)
The archers suggest the hatred of Joseph’s brothers and all that followed. God stood behind his arms. Joseph was the one “set apart from his brothers” (v. 26), and the one who was rejected became the saviour of his family.
How the Church reads it.
St Justin Martyr, writing to the Roman emperor, reads this prophecy of Jesus: the colt, and the robe washed in the blood of the grape, which points to the blood by which he cleanses those who believe (First Apology 32; in substance). St Augustine sees in the lion who lies down the Christ who laid down his life by his own power, and took it up again (City of God XVI, 41; in substance). Of Joseph, the Catechism recalls his words to his brothers, “it was not you who sent me here, but God”, as an example of God’s providence working through evil (CCC 312). St Ambrose reads him as a figure of Christ (On Joseph; in substance).
Setting.
Chapters 9–14 of Zechariah differ in style from chapters 1–8, and many scholars think they come from a later hand in the years after the return from exile. Israel has no king. Foreign armies pass through the land, and the chapter even names Greece (9:13). Into that situation comes this oracle. It has just described God coming to defend his house (9:8). Now the daughter of Zion is told to shout, because her king is on his way.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (9:9)
A donkey was no shameful animal for a ruler in old Israel; Solomon rode David’s mule to his anointing (1 Kings 1:33). But it is not a warhorse, as the next verse makes clear. In Hebrew verse the second line repeats the first: “on a donkey, on a colt” means one animal.
“and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations;” (9:10)
This king disarms his own people, Ephraim in the north and Jerusalem in the south. His rule reaches “from sea to sea”, as in Psalm 72:8, and he wins it by no war.
“Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;” (9:12)
A lovely phrase. They are bound, and what binds them is hope. “The waterless pit” (v. 11) recalls the pit into which Joseph was thrown: “the pit was empty; there was no water in it” (Genesis 37:24). In v. 11 the POC calls the prisoners “exiles”.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the King of glory enters his city riding on a donkey, and that he does not conquer the daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, by ruse or violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth (CCC 559). St Matthew and St John both quote this oracle at the entry (Matthew 21:5; John 12:15). The Church hears in v. 11 the blood of the new covenant, which she receives in the Holy Qurbana (CCC 610–611).
Setting.
Romans 9–11 is Paul’s long wrestling with a question that hurt him deeply: why have most of his own people not accepted Jesus as Messiah? He begins with “great sorrow” (9:2). He has already asked, “has God rejected his people? By no means!” (11:1). He ends by saying that “all Israel will be saved” (11:26), “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29). Today’s passage lies between. It is addressed to Gentile Christians in Rome, who may have been tempted to look down on Jews.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.” (11:16)
The first image comes from Numbers 15:17–21. The root is most probably the patriarchs, “for the sake of their ancestors” (11:28). The holiness of the root has not been cancelled.
“remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.” (11:18)
This is the sentence of the passage for Christians. All we have from Abraham, Moses and the prophets, and from Jesus, a son of Israel, we have received through this root.
“They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.” (11:20)
Paul is writing to warn the Gentile believer, and he says “some of the branches” (v. 17). He himself is one of the natural branches (11:1). This verse has been misused against the Jewish people, and that misuse is a sin against the text and against them. The tree stands, and they are still its own.
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God:” (11:22)
The warning is addressed to the Christian: “otherwise you also will be cut off”. Baptism is a gift to be lived in. Perseverance is itself a grace, for which we ask and in which we must walk.
“for God has the power to graft them in again.” (11:23)
The passage ends in hope: “how much more” (v. 24) these natural branches will be grafted into “their own olive tree”.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council quotes this image directly: the Church draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which the wild shoots of the Gentiles have been grafted, and the Jews remain most dear to God (Nostra Aetate 4). The Catechism says the same (CCC 60, 755, 839). St John Paul II, visiting the synagogue of Rome in 1986, called the Jewish people our dearly beloved and, in a certain way, elder brothers. So Israel is not replaced. As the Church enters the Week of the Passion, she reads this page to learn humility before the root from which her Lord came.
Setting.
Jesus has come up from Jericho with the pilgrims going to Jerusalem for Passover (20:17, 29). All four Gospels tell of the entry. The Mount of Olives, east of the city, was linked with the coming of the Lord (Zechariah 14:4). Matthew stresses that this is planned and fulfils Scripture. Unlike the earlier times when Jesus told people to keep silent about who he was (16:20), he now accepts a public acclamation.
Passover brought great crowds to Jerusalem, with memories of liberation and hopes of a king. In the Temple’s outer court, pilgrims bought animals for sacrifice and changed money into the coin accepted for the Temple tax. Doves were the offering of the poor (Leviticus 5:7), the one that Joseph and Mary brought for the child Jesus (Luke 2:24).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (21:5)
Matthew begins the quotation with words from Isaiah 62:11 and goes on with Zechariah. Only he mentions two animals. He may be following the wording of the Hebrew closely, and wanting to show that every word was fulfilled.
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (21:9)
Cloaks on the road greeted a new king (2 Kings 9:13). The people are naming Jesus as David’s heir. They are right, though the throne they have in mind may not be the one he is going to.
“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” (21:13)
He joins Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. In Jeremiah a den is where robbers go to feel safe between raids: it warns against thinking that worship protects a life of injustice. Jesus loved the Temple, and he acts here as prophets had, out of zeal for his Father’s house (CCC 583–584). This is not an attack on Judaism.
“The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.” (21:14)
This verse is found only in Matthew. A saying in 2 Samuel 5:8 had kept the blind and the lame out of “the house”, in connection with David. The Son of David now brings them in and heals them. The Temple is being made what it was meant to be.
“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself” (21:16)
The words are from Psalm 8:2, in the Greek version. The children carry on the cry after the adults have gone, and Jesus defends them. The Church sees here how the small ones know the King.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches that Jesus entered Jerusalem as the Messiah, acclaimed by children and by God’s poor, and that the Church takes up their Hosanna in the Sanctus (CCC 559); this entry shows the coming of the kingdom that the King-Messiah will bring about by his death and Resurrection (CCC 560). St Andrew of Crete invites us to spread before Christ’s feet not branches but ourselves (in substance). St Augustine says it was no promotion for the Lord of the ages to become King of Israel, but condescension: he came to rule souls (On John 51; in substance).
Did Jesus really ride on two animals?
Mark, Luke and John speak only of the colt. “He sat on them” (v. 7) may refer to the cloaks. Matthew seems to read Zechariah’s words closely and to show them being met in full. St Justin Martyr saw in the two animals a picture of the two peoples called together: Israel, already used to the yoke of the Law, and the Gentiles (Dialogue with Trypho 53; in substance).
Did the same people who shouted Hosanna shout “Crucify him” a few days later?
Preachers often say so, but the Gospel does not. Matthew’s crowd on the road knows Jesus as the prophet “from Nazareth in Galilee” (v. 11), and many think they were pilgrims travelling with him. At the trial he says that “the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds” (27:20). The Church teaches that the Jews as a whole cannot be held responsible for his death, and that all sinners were the authors of his Passion (CCC 597–598). The better question is how quickly my own Hosanna can change.
Does Romans 11 mean that God has replaced Israel with the Church?
No. Paul is writing precisely against that idea. God’s gifts and call to Israel are irrevocable (11:29). The Gentile is grafted into Israel’s tree and does not uproot it. The Church lives from that root and awaits the day when all peoples will call on the Lord with one voice (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 839).
Hosanna Sunday is among the most loved days of the Syro-Malabar year. The people gather with tender coconut leaves, the kuruthola. The palms are blessed, the Gospel of the entry is proclaimed, and the procession moves to the church with the cross going before and the Hosanna hymns on every lip. The King we have welcomed with palms then comes to us truly on the altar in the Holy Qurbana. Families take the blessed palm home to the prayer corner, and a cross folded from it is pressed into the Pesaha appam. So the leaf that greeted the King will be on the table of the Lord’s Supper. Today begins Hasha Week, the Week of the Passion. We enter it with our children crying out in front of us, as they did in the Temple, asking only to remain with him when the shouting stops.