His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Joanikije, with the clergy, monastics and faithful, today, April 5, on Cvijeta, served the Holy Hierarchical Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Trinity on Pelinska Rudina in Gornji Grblje.

After the Liturgy, after the procession had passed the church, the feast was congratulated by His Eminence Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Joannikije:

"May the great feast of the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem be a happy one, in which we also have a foretaste of the great feast of the Resurrection of Christ. Great joy for the whole universe, for all of us! We gather to celebrate the Lord, the conqueror of death."

The Archbishop of Cetinje recalled that Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday are particularly characterized by the fact that they are the feast of children and all those who welcomed the Lord in Jerusalem with a pure heart, when He entered as the One who appeared to have power over death. Namely, before His entry into Jerusalem, the Lord resurrected His friend Lazarus from the dead not only because He loved him, but also in order to strengthen His disciples in faith when His suffering comes, so that they will not waver. As the One who has power over death, He resurrected Lazarus with just one call, with His divine word.

"And you see how all this is happening, how then the great drama begins. The drama of heaven and earth. The drama into which the Lord entered for the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation. The Lord appeared as the conqueror of death, resurrecting His friend Lazarus. Great joy arose in Bethany, in the suburbs of Jerusalem. And He who manifested His divine power and His divine love for humanity, enters Jerusalem. The apostles and the faithful people, especially children, welcome Him with exclamations: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! They glorify Him as King and Lord. The faithful rejoice and already glorify Him as the Savior of the world. And on the other side you have those who are filled with envy, who want to kill not only Him, but also the four-day-old Lazarus, since he is a true witness of the resurrection," Metropolitan Joannikije spoke, pointing to the terrible conspiracy which is being forged against Christ.

On the one hand, there were those who welcomed Christ, who glorified the Lord and praised him with a pure heart, and there were a large number of them, and on the other hand, in the minority, there were those who were against Him. But all this later became dramatically entangled, and many of those who cheered Christ when he entered Jerusalem, glorifying Him as savior, king and Lord, unfortunately, in a few days, changed their feelings and their thoughts, and they said: Crucify him, crucify him!

"See how unstable man is, how unreliable everything in this world is! Even the apostles themselves, who were then in rapture and saw that the Lord was going to the work of saving the world and conquering death, bringing and granting new life, also wavered, in the moment of temptation and examination of conscience and faith, but not out of evil will, but out of human weakness, and for that reason the Lord forgave them. Apart from the fact that Judas was a traitor out of evil will, because he was already filled with demonic darkness and hatred and malice and out of that hatred he sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver, the other apostles wavered only out of human weakness and the Lord, condescending to their weakness, after His resurrection called them, gathered them together and forgave them. And He united them and restored their first dignity. See what a drama, which unfolded happened for the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation,” the Bishop emphasized.

He continued by emphasizing that the most important thing for us now is that we are entering the Great Week of the saving works of God, which the Lord Jesus Christ, organizing our salvation, performed when He entered Jerusalem:

“We, following Him, are going towards Holy Thursday and His Last Supper, to receive communion together with the apostles and to be worthy of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. And after that, to be worthy of faithfully and honorably, crucifying ourselves with our Lord on Good Friday, to bow down to His sufferings, His cross and His life-giving death and His holy tomb. So that we may be worthy of the great joy that encompasses both heaven and earth and that we may become co-participants in the resurrection, because by His resurrection He has made us co-participants and sharers in His glory and victory over death and His three-day resurrection. Great events are ahead of us to enter into the mystery of our faith, to renew our hearts and our minds, our whole beings, to renew our communion.”

He taught the congregation that the more we pray together these days, the better and deeper, the more intimately we will enter into the mysteries of our holy faith, and we will also be closer to each other. This is the union that the Holy Spirit makes possible – the Holy Spirit who permeates our hearts, unites us and makes us partakers of Christ our Lord and Savior.

"Dear brothers and sisters, may this great feast of the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, when He showed His glory, be happy! May we be with those children and with the Holy Apostles and with those simple-hearted people who accepted the Lord with all their hearts, were inspired by the Holy Spirit to glorify the Lord as Savior when He entered Jerusalem. And may we be firm and strong in faith, that in these holy days we follow Christ the Lord. This will be of great importance for the renewal of our souls, our entire being, and especially for the renewal and strengthening of our unity and our mutual love. For the Lord Jesus Christ, offering Himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of the world, showed the greatest love. True, genuine love is the one that is ready to sacrifice, and not the one that is only in words, and the Lord Jesus Christ showed this love by accepting the cross and suffering in order to grant us new life and new joy. and eternity, and glory,” concluded His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Joanikije.

Vesna Dević

Photo: Željko Drašković

Orthodox Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral