On April 9, 2023 the Orthodox Church celebrated feast of the Entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, also known as Palm Sunday. The Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov headed festal liturgical service in our parish.

Following the reading of the Hours the Rector blessed the pussy-willows and distributed them to the parishioners who were holding them during the service resembling the people of Jerusalem who greeted Jesus Christ with the olive and palm branches during His triumphal entry to the city.

After the readings from the Scripture at the Divine Liturgy the Rector preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate great feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday. In one week we are anticipating another holy day, the greatest feast for us – Holy Pascha. That feast of the feasts and solemnity of solemnities is always a great joy for a Christian soul. And in today’s feast we hear about a joy, a joy the people in Jerusalem experienced when they greeted Jesus Christ who entered the holy city. Why did they rejoice? Why did they greet Jesus? Because they were fascinated by His miracles. Those people had 3 years to observe Jesus, so in those years they watched His deeds and achievements, they saw His miracles. They admired the wonderful signs of His power. Especially, they were impressed by the resurrection of Lazarus who has been already dead for 4 days, but whom Jesus raised from the tomb. So, the whole scene of the Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is built around the joy of the people. They are so happy to see Him, so enthusiastic that they take the branches of the trees, place their clothes on His path, shout “Hosanna”. And they proclaim Him their King. It is admiration, fascination of the people. So, let us think about that.
“When we admire someone, become fascinated by that person, we are ready to do a lot of things. But there is a problem with that. And such problem appeared in the story of Jesus: the same people who so enthusiastically greeted Him entering Jerusalem, in a few days with the same zeal wished Him to be crucified. People often do that. We may easily become fascinated or obsessed with someone, and later hate that person and be ready to destroy him. Thinking of that, we may see that our human admiration, fascination easily becomes an obsession and leads us to creation of an idol. And the idols are dangerous; they are false. Furthermore, sometimes having an idol may lead to a greatest disappointment. When something goes differently than we expected from our idol, we may become hugely disappointed and start hating our idol. Such things especially happen in politics. People are fascinated with some political figure, are ready to place him on a pedestal, but when something goes wrong, something goes against their expectations, they become ready to bury him alive. That is the danger of human admiration and fascination”.
“Let us then recall what happened later, when Jesus was crucified and His Disciples left Him. There was a person beside the Cross of Christ who was not fascinated by Jesus at all. It was a Roman centurion, an officer who had to watch the place of the execution. That centurion stood at the cross and observed that the Jews crucified their King. The inscription on the cross said that. So, the officer observed that someone whom the Jews several days ago called their King now is dying on the cross. And when he saw the whole thing, when he witnessed the behavior of Jesus, when he witnessed His death, when he saw the earthquake that happened then, the centurion exclaimed with an awe, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27, 54). The centurion had no fascination with Christ but he experienced an astonishment, an amazement. And that was the right attitude towards God”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! We have to avoid fascination and obsession with anyone, even with God. Such attitude leads to a false cult. We rather have to imitate the Roman centurion at the Cross and have an amazement before God. A feeling of surprise, a felling of astonishment, a feeling of awe. Through His humble readiness to suffer for our sake, through His death on the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ showed something that should cause us to experience such feelings. The same feelings we often experience when we learn about the lives of the Saints. A week ago we could feel that about Venerable Mary of Egypt. Her life makes us wonder, makes us to be amazed, surprised and astonished. Today Jesus Himself causes such feelings. The Almighty God who became Man enters into Jerusalem sitting on a donkey’s colt. The King of the Jews later takes up the cross and goes to the Calvary. The Son of God dies on the cross”.
“Pontius Pilate was also surprised by Christ. He heard that Jesus is a King, so he asked him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”. Christ answered, “It is as you say” (Lk. 23, 3). But Jesus did not say to Pilate much about Himself. God never tells us everything, He always leaves some room for a mystery. He wishes us to fill that room. He leaves that room for our reaction, for our surprise, for our awe”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Today, when we hold those branches resembling the people of Jerusalem who greeted Christ, let us not be fascinated or obsessed but let us wonder. Let us not expect from God what we want but let us seek what God wants from us. Let us be amazed by the great works of the Lord. Let us be astonished, so such feelings will make our hearts to seek the true God, not some idol. Let us experience an awe that God is so great that He always makes us wonder!”

The choir director prayerfully performed hymns of the feast during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector and the altar server performed the rite of glorification before the festal icon. Then Fr. Igor greeted everybody on the occasion of the feast. He also congratulated Paraskeva Kosmidis on the occasion of her past birthday and proclaimed a Polychronion on her behalf.

After the service the Rector and parishioners had a luncheon enjoying delicious lenten meals.