THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ reply,
‘The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.’ So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it. So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him, as well as those following, kept crying out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!’ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything but went out to Bethany with the Twelve since it was already late.

A good Sunday for everyone. 

The episode narrated in the Gospel text we have just heard is set within the context the evangelist Mark provides. What has happened immediately before? The episode of Bartimaeus’s healing from blindness in Jericho. This is where this man, illuminated by the light of Christ, follows Jesus along the path. It is the image of the disciple who, after looking up and seeing the way Jesus is walking—the gift of life—follows him. It is the image of the disciple enlightened by Christ. Therefore, Jesus is coming from Jericho. The journey that brings him from Galilee to the donation of life until Calvary. It is a place near the finish line, and, coming from Jericho, it reaches Bethany and Bethphage; these are the places mentioned at the beginning of today’s Gospel reading. 

Let’s try to locate these places to better understand what has happened. The first mentioned is Bethphage. Bethphage is a town you can see behind me; it has a chapel built by the Franciscans on the site where Jesus would have begun his walk on the colt toward the city of Jerusalem. 

You can also see where Bethany was located, three kilometers from Jerusalem, on the eastern part of the Mount of Olives. You can also see the Mount of Olives, located east of Jerusalem. From the top of the Mount of Olives, one can contemplate the esplanade of the Temple of Jerusalem. It is also indicated that the street Jesus walked on was the one where he mounted the colt to enter the city. First, he had to climb to the top of the Mount of Olives, then descend toward the Kedron Valley, passing by Gethsemane and entering the Temple esplanade. According to the story of the evangelist Mark, Jesus entered the Temple, and the conclusion of today’s Gospel text says that Jesus observed everything that was happening there. The next morning, Jesus will enter the Temple and perform the gesture we reflected on two weeks ago: the purification of the Temple, not in the sense of restoring it to its former splendor, but to completely turn around the way of relating to God. It is no longer an earthly temple but a temple that is his person. United with him, sacrifices pleasing to God are offered. 

Let’s go to the text now. Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them: “Go into the village opposite you”—to Bethphage. In the background, you can see the painting in the apse of the Franciscan chapel. Of course, it depicts Jesus on the colt. The evangelist’s objective is not simply to tell this episode. What Jesus does is a significant gesture: he gets on a colt and enters the holy city. 

The evangelist wants to give us a message that radically affects our lives. We will try to decipher it by reading this narration in depth. First, the village has importance in the Gospels. In the Gospels, when we find the word “village,” it always refers to a place where there is a lack of acceptance of the novelty introduced by Jesus. We know that this town refused to accept the novelty … Ideas circulate most openly in the ‘cities,’ while in ‘villages’ people are generally very closed and very distrustful. 

We remember that when Jesus heals the blind man from Bethsaida, he leads him out of the village; otherwise, he could not recover his sight—he could not see the novelty. Jesus takes him out, and after healing him, tells him not to return to the village, not to return to that old mentality. ‘You have received the light’—do not return to the old criteria that kept you from seeing clearly in your life. This, then, is the meaning of ‘village.’ On the other hand, we remember well the difficulty Jesus encountered in the town of Nazareth. On the mountain, the atmosphere is more closed; there is distrust. Jesus preferred to go and announce the good news to Capernaum, which was much more open to receiving his message. 

Jesus tells his disciples: “Upon entering, you will find a colt tied, which no one has yet ridden.” The colt is the protagonist of this episode. He is mentioned four times with great emphasis, and this has significant meaning. First, we speak of ‘colt’ = ‘poles’ in Greek. It does not say ‘ones.’ ‘Onos’ is the donkey, and ‘ponos’ is the colt. The donkey is mentioned 111 times in the Old Testament and is always portrayed positively, as a symbol of the gentle, peaceful, laborious animal. The donkey works and nothing else. It does not react; it does not rebel. It is the symbol of humility, of work, of peace. 

The Bible speaks of the donkey that turns the millstone or, in Egypt, the wheels of the wells. Therefore, always with something beneficial, it produces life. The donkey is not used as a weapon of war. It is only a symbol of peace. Very different from the horse. The horse is a magnificent, solemn animal, not used for work in the fields but for battle. It is a war machine. When the horse is mentioned in the Bible, it refers to the warlike force that God faces and destroys. Let us remember the book of Exodus, the song of the sea: “Horses and riders He has thrown into the sea… The Lord threw into the sea the chariots and the troops of Pharaoh, He drowned his best captains in the Red Sea …” (Ex 15:1.4). 

Nevertheless, the kings of Israel always dreamed of the glory of chivalry. They envied the Egyptian armies, which could ride their horses. King Hezekiah sought this support from the Egyptian cavalry, and the prophet Isaiah was offended and pronounced an oracle: Some go to Egypt to seek help, and they place their trust in the chariots and cavalry of Egypt because they are mighty. But not the colt … The colt is not the symbol of strength but the symbol of service. 

This gesture is important. Jesus mounts the colt and becomes a symbol of the new kingdom he has come to introduce in the world. It is not a kingdom of chivalry but the kingdom of the one who rides the colt, the one who chooses the colt. Two animals appear in the gospels and are very important: the colt and the lamb. These animals, by their very nature, reveal the heart of God. 

“Untie it and bring it here.” In the background, can you see the painting I presented to you earlier in the Franciscan chapel of Bethphage? But there is also something interesting to observe now: a stone on which another painting is visible, better on the left. It is a stone that was placed in this chapel by the Crusaders and painted with the colt and the two disciples who carry the colt to Jesus. What is interesting is that the Crusaders placed this stone inside the chapel, saying that Jesus climbed on this stone to ride the colt. They put this stone there because they had horses. To mount a horse, you can climb on this stone, but to ride a donkey, you do not need to, for if one climbs on this stone, he must descend to mount the colt. It’s just a curious detail. 

Let’s now reflect on the significance of this gesture by Jesus. The reference is to the prophecy of the prophet Zechariah. What had the prophet Zechariah said? “Rejoice, daughter of Zion” (Zec 9:9). Who is this daughter of Zion? The daughter of Zion was the poorest part of Jerusalem, the outskirts where those who fled from Samaria took refuge after the city’s destruction by the Assyrian Sennacherib. The prophet says: “Jerusalem shouts with joy; look at your king who is arriving: just victorious …” Therefore, this situation demands change because there is poverty and suffering. 

Now comes a king who changes everything. “Fair, victorious, humble …” This is a surprise because the king promised the Davidic dynasty that a triumphant king who had defeated the enemies would come to this city, but instead a humble one arrives … “riding a colt, a baby donkey. He will destroy the chariots of Ephraim and the horses of Jerusalem.” It is a strange prophecy because the expectation was that the king would arrive with horses, beating all enemies. Instead, he comes riding a donkey and “will destroy the bows of war, proclaim peace to the nations; it will dominate from sea to sea, from the Great River to the end of the earth” (Zac 9:9-10) to Tarsus—there in the Iberian Peninsula. Therefore, the whole known world will be controlled by this king, who rides horses. Weapons of war were invincible back then, but now we have a Colt. 

This prophecy was made immediately after Alexander the Great, when Israel was not an independent nation. It was not at war with anyone, but it was an insignificant people on the international stage. It had been colonized first by the Persians and then by the Greeks, and it was exploited and oppressed by foreign powers. And here we have this surprise from the prophet, who announces the arrival of a king who would change everything, but not in the way expected. He would turn things around in ways people could not imagine. Not with violence or force. It announces the establishment of a surprising kingdom, unlike any expectations. It will not be the weak who will be subjected; it will be ‘the king’ who will serve the weak. 

This colt is tied and released. If you do not let go of this colt, the prophecy cannot be fulfilled, for the king must enter riding a colt and begin the expected kingdom. The colt is tied in the ‘village.’ ‘People’ are the ones who hold this colt. In the ‘village,’ people continue to cultivate a mentality of the old world: dreams of glory, triumph… They perpetuate the ancient world, the kingdom of this world’s rulers. In effect, Mark notes one detail: nobody had ridden that colt. 

All had imagined the creation of a new world, ridden by skilled riders. Nobody used a colt. The kingdom this king seeks to establish is an entirely new world. They had always cultivated dreams of mastery, and if we open the history book, we find a list of violence, of the strong against the weak. These were the kingdoms of the horses, not the colt kingdom. The colt is the symbol of service; a symbol of the one who puts his own life into the service of the one who needs work. 

Just imagine the ancient kingdom, the kingdom of horses… If we visit the museum in England where the bas-relief from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh is, we can see three kilometers of bas-relief covering the walls of 21 rooms that led to Sennacherib’s throne room. When you contemplate those bas-reliefs, which depict only violence, massacres of enemies, and victories over lions, imagine those who visited the great king, passing through these rooms and becoming aware of whom they had to deal with. This is the image of the ancient world. The strong dominate the weak, represented by the horse. Here we have a new king—a peaceful king. The cult of service that should be practiced. 

Let’s continue to consider the meaning the evangelist gives to this episode’s details. Some people do not want this colt to be loose. Jesus says some will regret it, and they will ask: “Why are you letting go of the colt?” They answer, ‘The teacher needs it.” The reaction of those who release this colt is striking because those who complain are not the owners of the colt but people of the village. What does it mean? Let’s put it clearly: the colt is the symbol of service, and the horse is the symbol of the dominators’ strength and the kingdom. The colt is the strength, the impulse that is in each one of us and that takes us to help the brother, to serve the brother or sister. 

In each of us are these two forces: the ‘horse’ that would lead us to dominate others, and the ‘colt,’ the compulsion that comes from God and leads us to serve the brother and sister. This second force is the one that releases the colt. The colt inside us breaks loose. 

Note that it is not the owner of the colt who prevents its release, because the owner of the colt within us is the compulsion that leads us to love our brothers and sisters. The owner is God. Whoever does not want this colt released is the townspeople. They cultivate the mentality that tells you not to serve your brother because they tell you, ‘think of yourself,’ ‘let others care for themselves.’ They are the people of the village. People with an old mentality say they do not get into trouble by serving. Dominate over others if you can. Instead, we must unleash this capacity to serve within us. 

They go, find the colt tied, and respond to those who want to prevent this gesture, saying what the Lord had suggested: “The Lord needs it.” And they bring the colt to Jesus. Now we have a very significant scene from a symbolic point of view, and we read it in light of references and biblical allusions. The ‘cloaks’ placed on the colt: the cloak indicates the person in the Bible. 

Let’s remember Elijah when he throws his cloak to Elisha. This signifies that he communicates the entire mission he has realized; his very spirit and person continue in his disciple Elisha. Putting the cloak on the colt means putting one’s person at Jesus’ disposal for his new proposal, which is to choose between the horse and the colt, and to choose the colt, therefore, the kingdom of the colt. This is the meaning of putting the mantle on the colt. Choose this new kingdom that Jesus is proposing. 

And Jesus mounts the colt. The colt is practically transformed into the throne of this new sovereign. The throne is not the horse; instead, the colt represents service. He mounts the throne as a servant. He sits there. We know that Jesus presents himself in our profession of faith, sitting at the right hand of God. That is his throne. And his throne here on earth, the colt, symbolizes service. 

And then we have a gesture that is often misinterpreted. It is one of those who are with Jesus and came from Galilee. They are not the people who left the city to go to meet Jesus; these are those who have accompanied Jesus but have not understood the gesture he has made. They are wrong because they spread their cloaks on the road, not on the colt, but on the road. 

It is a very noticeable gesture in the Bible because extending the cloak meant accepting the king of Israel in front of his horse. For example, when Jehu reveals himself against the dynasty of Ahab (2 Kgs 10), all spread their cloaks on the road; they blow the trumpet and shout: “Jehu, the king.” They are wrong … why? We know this from what they shout: “Those who went ahead and those who followed it shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!” 

They have not understood. It’s not that they sing and proclaim; they scream. They scream because they think that Jesus will introduce the kingdom of his father, David, a kingdom that was, according to the criteria of this world. They do not consecrate their lives to the proposal of service but extend it before the ‘horse,’ as did those who received the victorious and dominating king. They have not understood Jesus’ proposal. Between the old kingdom and the new kingdom that Jesus proposes, one can continue cultivating the dream of glory and dominion, which have characterized humanity until the coming of Jesus: the first one who has ridden this colt. That has risen on this throne. 

Therefore, the election of the new kingdom is to donate one’s life. It is a choice between two mutually exclusive paths in life: domination or service. Jesus proposes this new kingdom. They were wrong … they wanted to capture Jesus to fulfill their designs, their dreams, and their projects. The Gospel text says they put him in the middle, in front of Jesus and at the back. They wanted Jesus to realize their kingdom, the kingdom they had in mind. They did not understand. A week later, the same people who cheer him now will say: ‘crucify him’… Because they made a mistake, they chose the wrong person for their dreams. He was not the king they expected. They imagined he was the king who would realize their dreams, but instead he wanted to put us in his dreams. The dream of those who realize their own life by donating it. 

And Jesus entered Jerusalem, entered the temple concourse, and after seeing everything, and because it was already late, he returned to Bethany. He observed everything that happened in the temple, and the next morning, he returned to the temple esplanade and made the gesture that signifies the end of a way of relating to God and the beginning of the new temple, of the new way of relating to the Lord. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a holy week leading up to Easter.