The Night of Palm Sunday (1978) – For the late Father Bishoy Kamel
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the One God, Amen.
The events of these days, my beloved, are very important, important because they are filled with beneficial teachings, and because Jesus commanded us, saying, “If anyone wants to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” This saying remained unclear to the people, but today Jesus is practically implementing it in the events of these days.
From the very beginning of today, there are important events, as they are a practical application of the steps drawn by our Lord Jesus Christ for us to follow Him.
If someone wants to walk behind Christ, let them observe the steps He took during these days and never stray from the path. Because the steps are very clear, and these events are significant because they are filled with teachings more than what is contained in the books and what the Gospels hold, for what is written in the Gospel cannot be expressed fully, as our teacher John the Evangelist said, “The world could not contain the books that would be written.” Every verse and every word has many meanings so that one can truly live in them.
The events of this week are also serious and important… because they carry a sense of urgency. Due to their abundance, we can’t even live in the mindset of the ideas of Lord Jesus in the last days. We constantly find another event following it, and here you notice the last sentence… the last house Jesus entered before Bethany was Zacchaeus’s house yesterday. He was passing through Jericho and was saying to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down,” and we saw how crucial speed is. Because this is your lifetime opportunity, Zacchaeus; if you don’t hurry and come down, I won’t pass through Jericho again, so see how a simple conversation like this had the essence of urgency, because the opportunities for human salvation are very quick… and if you miss them, they might slip away.
So He tells him to hurry and come down because I must stay at your house today. And He spent the day with him and then traveled to Bethany. Bethany is a town close to Jerusalem, where Jesus loved to stay. This is the nature of Christ. He wasn’t as concerned with the big city of Jerusalem as He was with the small village, which even derives its name from the word “Bethany,” meaning the house of the sick, the poor, the house of misery, so the people there are humble and of modest means. He would rest away from the hypocrisy and deceit of the scribes and Pharisees and the things you all know about. In Bethany, significant events took place. How did this small village accommodate these events?!!… He would stay there every day and teach new teachings, and He never stayed in Jerusalem at all.
That night, the Lord had a dinner prepared for Him in Bethany, and the truth is that John the Evangelist is very important because he specified the timings and movements of Christ by the day, more than the three Gospels. For example, he says six days before Passover, so you can start counting from that day to know the date of Passover immediately. No one mentioned this incident except him, so a feast was prepared for Him, and I believe that people’s feelings were intensely affectionate toward Christ for an important reason: the reason being that He raised Lazarus in the village of Bethany. The resurrection of Lazarus brought joy to the entire village, so it was only fitting that they would prepare him a party, unaware that this was to be the last celebration.
What indicates that this party was filled with emotions and not just an ordinary dinner invitation is the story of the pouring of fradrant oil mentioned in the Gospel that night, where Mary, the sister of Lazarus, asked Him, “What should I do for you after you raised my brother?” She brought fradrant oil worth 300 denarii and poured it on the feet of Christ, beginning to wipe His feet with her hair. They were thinking of sweet human feelings, honoring Christ. But believe me, it was a greater honor because it was a feeling that came from the heart. No one was forcing this simple household to go buy a bottle of fradrant oil for 300 dinars just to pour it on the feet of Christ.
All the events that took place this week, whether good or bad, were larger than they appeared. I mean, Judas betrayed Him for 3 pounds (30 pieces of silver). This means it wasn’t a simple act because he was a disciple betraying His teacher for a meager price; the issue is very significant. Then, a woman like Mary goes and brings 300 dinars and pours them on Christ’s feet—this is also a major event.
It is clear that the events here are fraught with emotions in a very intense way, and Christ’s heart was reciprocated with these emotions to a great extent, to the point that when Judas stood to rebuke the woman and said to her, “You could have sold this for a large sum and given it to the poor,” Christ responded, “Be quiet, Judas; the poor you will have with you always… I do not take away from the livelihood of the poor, but leave this woman alone; she is expressing her love and gratitude in a way she cannot express in any other means. The poor are with you always, but I am not with you always.”
That bottle contained very significant meanings to the extent that, two days before Passover, as our teacher Matthew and our teacher Mark mentioned, at Simon the leper’s house on Wednesday, two days before Passover, another woman poured frafrant oil on Christ’s head. This is another instance. Christ also encouraged this woman when He found the disciples complaining a bit, saying to them: “Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
The story of pouring the fragrant oil became the beginning of this week. Christ considered it significant for Him, saying, “No, this woman has done a very great deed.” They asked Him, “What did she do?” He said, “A bottle of perfume, she sacrificed it.” He added, “But what she has done today is enough for Me, because I need someone to take care of Me while I am on the cross, and no one will dare come near Me, and this day will be the Passover, and people will say, ‘No, we won’t do any work, we won’t buy fragrant oil.’
But this woman did what no one else would do. The Lord Jesus Christ, in fact, affirms that wherever the gospel is preached, what this woman has done will be mentioned. He wants to show us an important principle, which is our topic today, by the grace of Christ in our Christian worship.
Christianity is, in fact, built on feelings and faith accompanied by love. Even the Apostle Paul dedicated a whole chapter talking about love, saying that if I gave all my money to the poor and delivered my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. He began to speak extensively about love. So, in fact, this week begins with pouring the fragrant oil, as if Christ the Lord of glory is establishing a very important principle in worship, which is love for God. Without love, it is not worship; it becomes mere obligations, and our church despises obligations, even though it has rituals.
But if you contemplate it, you will find it all an expression of the love of our Lord and the love of the Church. Christ said, what is the value of your worship? How did I come to know you? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son… So I came for you… I came out of love…
I will tell you something very difficult: how did the disciples of Christ experience what they did on that last night? How is that possible! How did this woman remain steadfast in her strong faith?!…
If we want to make a small comparison. Of course, forget about Judas and his story; that’s a story on its own, but let’s talk about Peter… he cursed and fled. Then there’s Thomas, who doubted. As for the rest of the disciples, not one of them made it to the cross… not one. No one went to the cross except John. And the Gospel of John did not overlook this incident either. Because John, in particular, had personal knowledge of the high priests. So it is possible that this is also the reason for his familiarity with the people around him. And while we do not mention John’s great love for Christ, what I want to tell you is…
The woman poured fragrant oil on the feet of Jesus and walked behind Him in the street. I followed Him all the way to the cross. It’s good that Jesus entered the tomb and was buried. The darkness remained, and there was no hope among any of the disciples that Jesus could rise from the dead. The woman who poured the perfume ran to the tomb, and the darkness remained, and she also took with her some fragrant spices to place on the body of Jesus according to their custom, and she became the first to announce the glorious resurrection.
In truth, my beloved, many people followed Jesus but did not complete the journey. We are walking a path behind Jesus, and along the way, there will be a cross… there will be problems, and there will be more than one cross as well… there will be death and burial. Who will follow Jesus to the end? Do you think that the martyrs who followed Jesus to the end had hearts filled with a tremendous love that made them offer their lives for Christ?
And Saint Ignatius, who was a disciple of the Apostle Peter, while he was being led to martyrdom, said, “I want to be fulfilled and feel that I love Christ, and my love for Christ will not be clear or evident unless I see my blood shed for Christ as His blood was shed for me.” So I consider that this blood is a sign among the signs to express their love for Christ.
When you research the history of the church, you find that the primary motivation for martyrdom was love for Christ. The initial motivation for monasticism, even after the era of martyrdom ended, was the same. People left the world and lived in the wilderness and caves out of their immense love for the King Christ. A heart filled with the love of Christ has a clear path. You ask me if there are obstacles now in Christianity. I tell you there are no obstacles at all because the greatest obstacle is not the cross. What is greater than the cross? Not death? Whoever follows Christ with the pure feelings that were poured out today walks with Him all the way to the cross, and beyond the cross, and beyond death, and to the resurrection as well…
Who among all the disciples was able to reach Christ after the resurrection? Who? Who can go to the tomb with the guards standing there watching? Who? Except for someone whose heart is filled with love… And in my imagination, this woman returned from the cross on Friday night and tried to sleep… I don’t know if she slept or not… but she stayed up all night, unable to sleep… because she was anxious. What kept her on Saturday was that this Saturday was forbidden… it was a great Saturday and movement or buying anything was prohibited… so she had to stay in, otherwise, if they saw her in the street, she would have to be stoned. And while darkness remained, “Just wait until Saturday is over, my lady, wait until the day breaks…” She said,” No… I will run straight to Jesus”. So she deserved to be the first to receive the news of the resurrection.
In summary, I want to tell you that your path behind Christ, if it is not filled with complete love, you will stumble along the way. The road is full of obstacles, problems, tribulations, and temptations from the world. The desires for worldly things today are known in a different way, and in violent ways that press on a person, seizing their heart. They say, “My heart is in this matter… I can’t do without it.” Oh my dear, that is wrong… you are harming yourself… even for your own good, forget about Christ. They say, “No… my heart is attached to this matter.”
As our teacher Paul the Apostle says, even in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lacking the capacity to love Christ, but having the capacity to love themselves… lovers of themselves, lovers of money, disobedient.
It is clear that our Christianity relies on the energy of love. That is why we establish the cornerstone of Christianity, which is the cross. When we see the cross and see Christ hanging on it, as the Exposition of the Feast of the Cross says, the wood of the cross is the lamp that our Savior was lit upon, and it emitted a fragrance that captured the attention of all humanity. You can never have a relationship with Christ except through love.
What makes you feel the need? What makes a Christian feel the need to walk with Him to the cross, or to Golgotha, or to Gethsemane? Believe me, the journey is very long. What makes a Christian girl today feel the need to live in purity and holiness and not to be swept away by the current of the world? Unless she is fully devoted to Christ. What makes a young man today feel the need to live sincerely for Christ and fulfill His commandment? What makes a Christian household today, knowing the city and its temptations and the new things every day, feel the need to be a Christian home? What a difficult path… difficult for the girl, difficult for the young man, difficult for the adults, and difficult for the church. Believe me, really, it’s difficult for the church today. The church takes the world and sees where its right is and does, and makes, and prepares the way before Christ; who would be devoted to Him except souls that are filled with love for our Lord?
John the Beloved says this: ” Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!. It is not we who loved Him first, but He loved us first.” So, the one who loved us first is Christ. If you ask a Christian why they follow Christ and they don’t say, “Because I love Him and I love His cross, and I owe Him,” you should know they won’t be able to continue on the path. I know they won’t continue; maybe they will encounter pain or hardship on the way and say, “No, that’s not for me. This is for those who follow God.” (And this is a phrase many people use; they say, “Father, I’m afraid when I get closer to God a little.”) Trials come to me. So better not to get close to God lest trials come upon you. And then if you do get a little closer to God, you’ll see you won’t live like my peers in the world, and you know that now you have to be a modern man, and compliment people, and your home shouldn’t be less than others, and you know I’m a girl like all the other girls now… and I have to dress not according to the Gospel of Christ, but I have to live…
Also, you’ll find the matter is difficult today, not easy at all. Who is committed to Christ? Who will rise while darkness remains… and run to meet Jesus?! This is someone who must have old experiences… What are their experiences?
I’m not going to talk about this particular Mary… but also about another one(Mary, the sister of Lazarus)… Her experiences previously, once she sat at Jesus’ feet and loved to hear His words. His words were sweet and entered her heart, and then Martha got upset and said to Him: “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to come and help me.” He replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Do you know what Mary has done? Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” What does this mean? It means that while Jesus was speaking in the house, the other woman was busy in the kitchen, and Mary was sitting at His feet. His words were like jewels… gold… entering her heart; she didn’t want to leave. If Jesus spoke for 10 hours, she would be sitting at His feet. The Word of God is never boring… Another one might say, “Brother, we have preparations and other concerns…” Jesus would reply, “Oh Mary… Oh Martha… a simple morsel… the presence that is in the house contains more love than being busy; it’s a good opportunity to listen to the voice of Jesus.
That’s why, my dear, when the church tells you a million times, are you reading the Gospel and the Holy Bible? Are you reading it attentively? Are you reading it with pleasure? Are you reading it with longing? Just as David the prophet said in his psalms, “In His law, he meditates day and night… and His law is his delight and desire… for every perfection I see a limit, but Your law is exceedingly broad.”
Mary loved the words of Jesus, why?! When I love someone, I love his words. So what does it mean if I don’t love someone? It means I don’t love his words; I just fulfill the duties I have. So you might want to be honest with yourself today as we talk about the good on the night of the entrance to Jerusalem.
Not everyone, my dear, will reach the end with Christ. There are people who will shout and say, “O Son of David,” and then say, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” And one disciple who will eat with Him will deny Him, another one will curse.
Not everyone deserve the way with Jesus,it deserves the faithful, sincere souls who have tasted the Word of God. Mary loves God, so she chose the good portion. She chose Jesus as her portion. What did Mary say? She said, “Look: everything in the world (Jesus said that) can be taken from me. What will not be taken from me?… You know even my body will be taken from me one day… I’m not leaving this world with anything, but I will take Jesus. That is the good portion that will never be taken away… and no power can take it from me.”
That’s why the Apostle Paul, while in prison, says: “Who shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus” … They absolutely cannot do anything…
She chose the good portion at the feet of Christ, here is Mary … here is love. How does love manifest? “He who loves me keeps my commandments,” so love is when you keep Jesus’ commandments and follow them … The more you love, the lighter the commandment becomes; the less you love, the heavier and heavier the commandment becomes.
And when the commandment is heavy, you’ll find that this Christianity is all difficult and impractical, and it doesn’t suit the age we live in. If there is no energy of love … the commandment of Jesus will be very difficult.
What will be good? The best thing is thar He is the center of our life. If you pay attention to the words of Christ, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross,” Do you know where our center of gravity is? The self… I love myself, and then… the body is connected to the self, and the body is connected to the belly, food, the future, children, and so on. So you see that a person who starts to revolve around themselves has not chosen the good portion, but the one whose portion is Jesus relies on Christ Jesus… Jesus takes care of his matters, He takes care of his future; what is important to him is that his portion is Christ.
Even Paul the Apostle (may God help us all that this is not just preaching) says, ” For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” This means that even if I die and lose everything… and again he said, ” But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” So is this feeling deep in your heart? Are you happy that you are a Christian? Jesus says again, “If they persecute you and insult you because of my name, rejoice and be glad.” Who can rejoice in trouble? So when I am persecuted for Christ, I rejoice?! If there is a love for Christ, I will rejoice. I will tell Him for your sake… for your sake, I can endure this a million times more… Why? Because love has become clear; everything has become easy in the Gospel. You say, “Wow, Father… our Gospel is very delightful and easy, and those who say its commandments are difficult!! That’s not true… every commandment of the Gospel is easier than the other. That’s why Christ said, ‘My commandments are not burdensome,’ even though they are heavy…
Did you know why it was not heavy ? According to the local proverb, it says your beloved swallows the gravel for your sake, so my commandments are not heavy for whom? For those who love me, and my burden is not heavy… Then he says carry my yoke, and this yoke is a big thick piece of wood that they put on the neck of the ox while it turns the water wheel, carry my yoke… The yoke is known to be difficult… He goes back and says you know… my yoke is easy and my burden is light… How? Like this… He said I’m just like that, but it depends on your love for Christ, so I want to say the first point so we don’t forget it, no one will reach the joy of Christ’s resurrection… except with the power of love. Because the road is difficult and in the middle of it is a cross, and in the middle of it is death.
And the Apostle Paul once said: he once said a phrase that you find very strange, he says: “For your sake we are killed all day long,” and he didn’t die once… It turned out that he was dying all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, we have no dignity at all, and we were likened to sheep for slaughter, but in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us… Oh wow, you, Paul, have reached it. He said yes because I love Him… His commandments are not heavy…but light… His gospel is sweet and delightful, and this is my comfort. I care about this gospel; I enjoy it and find solace in it, and I never get enough of it.
And if there are tribulations on the road, please be very assured that you are walking rightly, because if there are tribulations on the road, then there is a cross, so you are indeed walking in the footsteps of Christ because for Christ to reach the resurrection, He must go through Gethsemane, then Golgotha, and then the tomb, and then reach the resurrection. There is no other way… there is no other way at all. Oh Lord, fill my heart with feelings of love with the word of our Lord… with the word of what?… our Lord… because she has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.
On our practical level, there is something very simple that I would like to tell you. You know the liturgy that we perform, Jesus said about it, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you.” What kind of desire, Jesus? A desire to eat meat, like a slaughtered lamb or grilled meat? He said no… My desire is to sacrifice Myself and give you to eat.
So, dear one, none of us can truly grasp the importance of the liturgy, nor will we feel bored, nor should we arrive late… the habit that has become normal, or leave before the sacrifice is concluded… before our priest finishes the sacrifice… all of this is due to one reason: our love for Christ is weak. We don’t understand what is happening on the altar; Jesus is offering Himself as a sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? He said a sacrifice of love, a sacrifice of love?! He says, “Take, eat; this is My body, broken for you. Take, drink; this is My blood, shed for you.” How can My blood be given to you? It must be shed… In light of this, what is your stance? What is your position in attending the liturgy ? Do you come late? Do you come early? I cannot tell you… You might say it’s my circumstances, but it’s not about circumstances… it’s about the energy of love for Christ that drives you to run, to keep you engaged in the liturgy without drifting away.
You might tell me, “I drift away…” Well, that is also an energy of love, because you are preoccupied with the one who loves you and died for you, and then you eat Him while you are joyful. We say to Him, “It is not easy for you to give me your blood,” but that is a subject that requires extensive discussion.
It’s not about those who stand and talk during the liturgy, those who get distracted by other topics, those who take off their shoes here, those who put them to the left, and those who put them to the right, those who rush to receive communion first, those who receive last, and those who take communion and run out, and those who come from outside to receive communion, take it, and leave quickly. This indicates a lack of awareness and understanding of what is happening in the church and the sacrifice… It means that the heart is empty of the love of Christ, and that our attachment to Christ is nothing more than a habit, that we come to church, enter and leave immediately.
But I know someone… may God rest him in peace… who used to pray in our church here and would leave the church while the priest was sprinkling water, then he would lock himself in his room and tell them at home when someone came, “Say he locked himself in his room, he won’t meet anyone right now, because I want to sit for two hours talking to Jesus, whom I received in communion, and who gave me His blood.” I would see his gaze as he stood throughout the liturgy, tears streaming from his eyes, never leaving his sight of the sacrifice. He would stand in the sanctuary, his gaze fixed on the sacrifice because he was coming for a specific purpose, coming from home to Jesus, whom he loves.
In fact,the love of Jesus, my dear ones, makes our worship easy and delightful. All forms of worship, in short—so I won’t dwell on this point—if all forms of worship are not mixed with love, what are they? As one of the fathers says, why do we leave prayer for something trivial, for a little distraction? Or someone might say, I get distracted, and indeed many thoughts attack us during prayer, because our love for Christ is weak. That’s why our prayer is feeble, and what? Weak, and that’s why it also ends in weakness. Jesus also loves in our worship that we present something to Him; He says, I don’t like to enter someone’s house with empty hands, and I don’t like to approach Jesus with empty hands. That’s why, in the Old Testament, they always offered the first fruits. For example, someone has a field; he takes the first fruits and offers them… he has a firstborn son, he offers him… or he offers something in his place, so they always presented the first fruits.
Mary, then, early in the morning while it was still dark, went to offer what? She offered good morning prayer—this is what is neglected, because we rush in the morning. This is the good thing she presents to Jesus as soon as she opens her eyes in the morning. She says to Him, here are my feelings, my love, my day, and my life. Can I get out of my bed now, O Jesus, unless You take ownership of this day? I hope, O Lord, that it will be in Your possession, and tomorrow we sit and say to Him, “Save us , king over Israel, come reign… reign over my heart, my time, my life, my body, my thoughts, and everything that belongs to us.”
In the early morning, when the world is still like this and the sun has not yet shown its rays, you stand there offering Jesus the most precious thing you have. You say, “Here are my feelings; I present them to you at the beginning of the day. I am waking up, and usually, one is up in the morning… The mind is not preoccupied with anything, not like at night. So I wake up and present to you all my feelings of love… Here is the fragrant oil with those who offered in the dawn before your resurrection took place; this is our worship.
Works : Works, my beloved in Christianity, differ from works in anything else because the Work which is not accompanied by love becomes worthless, no matter how grand it is.
It means, suppose you established a social institution but without love, to the extent that God considered the poor to be His younger brothers: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Therefore, work without love is considered wasted. This woman gave from her poverty, why? Because she loves Christ. Her love made her two coins count more than what others gave. It’s not important that you give a lot; what matters is that you give from your heart with love. Even when the church prays, it says, “Remember, O Lord, those who have offered these gifts and those who wish to offer but have not.” These are equal in the eyes of Christ, not because you have the means to give, and those who do not have cannot give. That’s why God looks at the gift and weighs it on the scale of love.
If the gift is about love for Christ, then it is an acceptable gift; if it is not love for Christ, then throw it on the ground, it’s a loss, as St. John Chrysostom said: you didn’t gain it on earth, nor did you gain it in heaven. Apply this to every act you do. If you are doing good for your brother, if you forgive your brother not out of obligation but out of love for Christ, because He told you to forgive your brother, you’ll find that this act is great in the eyes of God. If you perform an act of love for someone and relieve a sick person who is distressed, tired, out of love for Christ, this act becomes very significant, even if it is something very small.
Perhaps a Sunday school teacher is serving a few little kids; many servants were with us in the church and grew, but they lost the energy of love to carry them through to the end. They say, “Well, we got married, and we have kids and responsibilities, and we serve our home, and that’s it.” And the deacon who serves in the church, also singing and happy, if it is not out of love for Christ, it is not accepted before God. What will God do with His voice?
That’s why, my beloved, this woman has given us a very important lesson, a topic of utmost importance, to start this Holy Week with. All our works, if devoid of love, have no value, and the cornerstone of our lives and dealings is the love of Christ. That’s why even the only word of reproach that the Lord Jesus directed to Peter after the resurrection was not “You denied, cursed, and insulted,” and all that… He said, “Simon, do you love me?” He replied, “You know, Lord.” He said, “Then tender my sheep.” He asked him again, “Do you love me?” He said, “Yes, you know.” The third time He asked him, “Do you love me?” Simon wept and said, “You know,” meaning He was reminding him that love should not lead you to deny me and curse and insult.
This, my beloved, must make our path 100% clear as we walk behind Christ, and may God mention us all in our worship and dealings that if they lack the love of Christ, they are waste and worthless.
God is able at the beginning of this Holy Week to fill our hearts with the love of the cross, the love of the Crucified, and the love of following Christ, no matter how difficult or challenging the path may be.
To our God be eternal glory forever. Amen.
Reference :-
Book of Luminous Lived Sermons – Page 246 – Issued by the Diocese of Mallawi, Ansena, and Ashmounin.