Palm Sunday
April 14, 2019
The entry into Jerusalem, BL Royal 2 B VII
THE Anglo-Saxon homilist Ælfric, in a tenth-century sermon on Palm Sunday, stated:
‘It is the custom in God’s church, established by its teachers, that everywhere in God’s congregation the priest should bless palm-branches on this day, and distribute them, thus blessed, to the people; and God’s servants should then sing the hymn which the Jewish people sang before Christ when he was coming to his Passion. We imitate the faithful ones of that people with this deed, for they carried palm-branches with hymns before the Saviour. Now we shall hold our palms until the singer begins the offering-song, and then we shall offer the palm to God because of what it signifies: a palm betokens victory. Christ was victorious when he overcame the mighty devil and rescued us, and we also shall be victorious through God’s power, so that we conquer our evil habits, and all sins, and the devil, and adorn ourselves with good works; and at the end of our life we shall deliver the palm to God, that is, our victory, and thank him fervently, that we through his help have conquered the devil, so that he could not deceive us.’
Read the rest of his moving sermon at The Clerk of Oxford.
