JEROME . The multitudes that came out of Jericho, and followed the Saviour, cast down their garments, and strewed the way with branches of trees; and therefore it follows, But the multitudes spread their garments in the way; that is, beneath the feet of the ass, that it should not stumble against a stone, nor tread upon a thorn, nor fall into a ditch. Others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way; from the fruit-trees, that is, with which mount Olivet was clothed. And when all that could be done was done, they added also the tribute of the tongue, as it follows, And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. I shall shortly examine what is the meaning of this word Hosanna. In the hundred and seventeenth Psalm, which is clearly written of the Saviour’s coming, we read this among other things; Save me now, O Lord; O Lord, send now prosperity. Blessed art thou that art to come in the name of the Lord. (Ps. 118:25.), For that which the LXX give Ω Κύριε σω̄σον δὴ, Save now, O Lord; we read in the Hebrew, ‘Anna, adonai osianna,’ which Symmachus renders more plainly, I pray thee, O Lord, save, I pray thee. Let none think that it is a word made up of two words, one. Greek and one Hebrew, for it is pure Hebrew.
REMIGIUS . And it is confounded of one perfect and one imperfect word. For ‘Hosi’ signifies ‘save;’ ‘anna’ is an interjection used in entreating.
JEROME . For it signifies that the coming of Christ is the salvation of the world, whence it follows, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Which same thing the Saviour in the Gospel confirms, I am come in my Father’s name. (John 5:43.)
REMIGIUS . Because, namely, in all His good actions, He sought not His own but His Father’s glory.
GLOSS . (ap. Anselm.) And the meaning is, Blessed, that is, Glorious, is He that cometh, that is, is incarnate; in the name of the Lord; that is, of the Father, by glorifying Him. Again they repeat, Hosanna, that is, Save, I pray thee, and define whither they would bo saved, in the highest, that is in the heavenly, not in the earthly places.
JEROME . Or by that which is added, Hosanna, that is, Salvation, in the highest, it is clearly shewn that the coming of Christ is not the salvation of man only, but of the whole world, joining earthly things to things heavenly.
ORIGEN . Or when they say, Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, it is the dispensation of Christ’s humanity that they set forth; but His restoration to the holy places when then say, Hosanna in the highest.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . Hosanna, some interpret ‘glory,’ some ‘redemption;’ and glory is His due, and redemption belongs to Him who has redeemed all men.
HILARY . The words of their song of praise, express His power of redemption; in calling Him the Son of David, they acknowledge His hereditary title to the kingdom.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . Never before had the Lord employed the services of beasts, nor surrounded Himself with the ornaments of green boughs, till now when He is going up to Jerusalem to suffer. He moved them that beheld to do that which they had before desired to do; so it was opportunity that was now given them, not their purpose that was changed.
JEROME . Mystically; The Lord draws near to Jerusalem departing from Jericho, and taking great multitudes with Him, because great and laden with great wares, that is, the salvation of believers that has been entrusted to Him, He seeks to enter the city of peace, the place of the beholding of God. And He comes to Bethphage, that is, to The house of the jawbones; He bare also the type of confession; and halted on Mount Olivet, where is the light of knowledge, and the repose from toils and pains. By the village over against the Apostles is denoted this world; for that was against the Apostles, and was not willing to receive the light of their teaching.
REMIGIUS . The Lord therefore sent His disciples from mount Olivet to the village, when He guided the preachers forth from the primitive Church into the world. He sent two, because there were two orders of preachers, as the Apostle shews, saying, He that wrought in Peter to the Apostleship of circumcision, the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles; (Gal. 2:8.) or, because the precepts of charity are two; or, because there are two testaments; or, because there is letter and spirit.
JEROME . Or, because there is theory and practice, that is, knowledge and works. By the ass which had been under the yoke, and was broken, the synagogue is understood. By the ass’s colt wild and unbroken, the Gentile people; for the Jewish nation is towards God the mother of the Gentiles.
RABANUS . Whence Matthew, who wrote his Gospel to the Jews, is the only one who mentions that the ass was brought to the Lord, to shew that this same Hebrew nation, if it repent, need not despair of salvation,
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . Men are likened to animals, from some resemblance they bear in their not recognising the Son of God. And this animal is unclean, and beyond all other brutes incapable of reasoning, a stupid, helpless, ignoble drudge. Such were men before the coming of Christ, unclean with divers passions; unreasoning, that is lacking the reason of the Word, stupid, in their disregard of God; weak in soul, ignoble, because forgetting their heavenly birth they became slaves of their passions, and of the dæmons; drudges, because they toiled under the load of error laid upon them by the dæmons, or the Pharisees. The ass was tied, that is, bound in the chain of diabolic error, so that it had not liberty to go whither it would; for before we do any sin we have free will to follow, or not, the will of the Devil, but if once by sinning we have bound ourselves to do his works, we are no longer able to escape by our own strength, but, like a vessel that has lost its rudder is tossed at the mercy of the storm, so man, when by sin he has forfeited the aid of Divine grace, no longer acts as he wills, but as the Devil wills. And if God, by the mighty arm of His mercy, do not loose him, he will abide till death in the chain of his sins. Therefore He saith to His disciples, Loose them, that is, by your teaching and miracles, for all the Jews and Gentiles were loosed by the Apostles; and bring them to me, that is, convert them to My glory.
ORIGEN . Whence also, when He ascended into heaven, He gave command to His disciples that they should loose sinners, for which also He gave them the Holy Spirit. But being loosed, and making progress, and being nourished by the Divinity of the Word, they are held worthy to be sent back to the place whence they were taken, but no more to their former labours, but to preach to them the Son of God, and this is what He signifies when He says, And straightway He will send them.
HILARY . Or by the ass and the colt is shewn the twofold calling from among the Gentiles. For the Samaritans did serve after a certain fashion of obedience, and they are signified by the ass; but the other Gentiles wild and unbroken are signified by the colt. Therefore two are sent to loose them that are bound by the chains of error; Samaria believed through Philip, and Cornelius as the first-fruits of the Gentiles was brought by Peter to Christ.
REMIGIUS . But as it was then said to the Apostles, If any man sag ought to you, say ye, The Lord hath need of them; so now it is commanded to the preachers, that though any opposition be made to them, they should not slack to preach.
JEROME . The Apostles clothes which are laid upon the beasts may be understood either as the teaching of virtues, or discernment of Scriptures, or verities of ecclesiastical dogmas, with which, unless the soul be furnished and instructed, it deserves not to have the Lord take His seat there.
REMIGIUS . The Lord sitting upon the ass goes towards Jerusalem, because presiding over the Holy Church, or the faithful soul, He both guides it in this life, and after this life leads it to the view of the heavenly country. But the Apostles and other teachers set their garments upon the ass, when they gave to the Gentiles the glory which they had received from Christ. The multitudes spread their garments in the way, when they of the circumcision who believed, despised the glory which they had by the Law. They cut down branches from the trees, because out of the Prophets they had heard of the green Branch as an emblem of Christ. (Is. 11:1. Jer. 23:5.) Or, the multitudes who spread their garments in the way, are the martyrs who gave to martyrdom for Christ their bodies, which are the clothing of their minds. Or, they are signified, who subdue their bodies by abstinence. They who cut down the branches of the trees, are they who seek out the sayings and examples of the holy fathers for their own or their children’s salvation.
JEROME . When He says, The multitudes that went before and that followed, He shews that both people, those who before the Gospel, and those who after the Gospel, believed on the Lord, praise Jesus with the harmonious voice of confession.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM . Those prophesying spoke of Christ who was to come; these speak in praise of the coming of Christ already fulfilled.
21:10–16
10. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
11. And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.