“Hosanna!” Our entrance into Holy Week begins with the singing of Hosannas to Jesus
Christ the King who enters into Jerusalem in a triumphal victory procession as would a
conquering king. When a king would return from war victorious there would often be a victory
procession that celebrated the great victory of the king and proclaimed his power and
magnificence. We have a similar practice today when we hold victory parades, most often held
for sports figures, for those who are returning victorious from some contest. We call them now
“ticker tape” parades. The parade allows the people who gather for the parade to share in the
victory of the one who has conquered. Now we litter the street with confetti and streamers but
then in Jerusalem they littered the streets with palm branches.
The word “hosanna” comes from the Hebrew word “hoshanna” which means “save now”. It is
thus a cry for salvation and a recognition that the one who is being heralded is one who has
demonstrated the power to save. In our Christian liturgies it has become a song of praise to the
Lord who comes to save us. From the depths of our inner struggles with sin and death we cry
out our hosanna to the Lord and ask him to free us from the slavery to death and help us to
share in his victory. The singing of hosannas to the Lord is sweet to us as Christians because
we know that the Lord in his love and mercy will not fail to give us the gifts we need for
salvation.
We begin our Holy Week with hosannas as Jesus enters into Jerusalem in a glorious
procession being born on a donkey. Weeks later Jesus will leave Jerusalem, again in glory, now
riding upon the clouds of heaven, having won the victory over sin and death and being heralded
by the angels in heaven at his ascension. Between these two processions in and out of
Jerusalem a great drama will take place that will accomplish for us the work of salvation. In
Jerusalem Jesus will offer himself as a sacrificial offering for the sins of the world as he suffers
and dies on the cross. We stand among the crowds to witness these events and to participate
in the salvation which they affect. Throughout this Holy Week there should be a continuous
“hosanna” in our hearts, lifted up to the Lord, imploring him for our own salvation. As we see so
are we called to believe in the love that God has for us that he would give us so great a gift of
salvation. “God has so loved the world…” and now we must follow in the way of love that is set
down before us in Jesus. We must follow him on the way of the cross so that we might also
learn to love “to the end”.
Our lives must become a continuous hosanna offered to the Lord. “Save us now, O Lord.”
We cannot save ourselves from sin and death. We cannot lift ourselves out of the pit of
destruction that our sins have created. We need the grace of God’s merciful love and that
merciful love is made visible in the lifting up of Jesus Christ on the cross. As we look upon the
one who was pierced for our sins and contemplate the love that is able to suffer death for our
salvation and to win victory over death we cry out in our hearts, “hosanna”.
Let us then take up the palm branches once again, let us accompany the Lord in his
Passion, and then as we place these palm branches in our homes once again, let them be
reminders to us throughout the year of the merciful love of our savior and his victory over death.
Each time we see them may a silent hosanna ring out in our hearts.