Today the King comes to take possession of his Kingdom. Who is this King? God's only Son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. What is his Kingdom? The eternal, everlasting Kingdom where God himself rules every heart.

The King's triumphal entry into Jerusalem is the first act of the sacred drama of Christ's greatest work: his passion, death, and resurrection, by which he would redeem the world and establish his everlasting Kingdom. Today, we celebrate this triumph with the ancient symbol of victory: palm branches. And it is right that we should. 

But are we only spectators? No. We are called to be involved in Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The clue to this fact, that we are called to be more than just spectators, is the way Christ entered Jerusalem – on a donkey colt.

That means a bunch of things. It means that Christ is fulfilling his Father's will, because Zechariah had prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a colt. It means that Christ is the Prince of Peace, because when kings in ancient times came bringing peace, they rode on donkeys, but when they came bringing war, they rode on horses. 

But most importantly, it is a parable. Jerusalem stands for every human heart. Just as Jerusalem was surrounded by huge stone walls, every human heart too is surrounded by walls. Jesus wants to go through those walls and win over those hearts. And he doesn't want to do it alone. He could have walked into Jerusalem on his own feet, but he didn't. He chose to need the colt.

In the same way, in order to bring his Kingdom into people's hearts today, he chooses to need you and me. We are the donkey colts, carrying Christ into every city of the world, into every heart. Jesus wants to conquer the world through us.

This was Jesus' constant strategy. From the very beginning of his mission on earth, he chose to require human cooperation, coming among us through the humble obedience of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Now, 2000 years later, he continues to come among us through common, every day elements like the water of baptism, the oil of anointing, and the bread and water of the Eucharist.

Think of the wafers of bread that we will use in today's Mass. They are so plain. Unleavened bread. Flimsy and fragile. They barely have any taste. There is nothing special about them at all, nothing attractive, from the world's perspective. And yet, through them is how Jesus Christ, Creator, Redeemer, and King of the universe chooses to come to us. Now, if we didn't bring that bread up to the altar, Christ would not come. If we didn't give that bread to the Church and the Holy Spirit, it would remain forever just ordinary bread. 

Think of the priesthood, the sacrament by which that bread becomes Christ's Precious Body and Blood. It is not the human power of the priest that does it, not his intelligence or athletic ability or personality – he is completely powerless to perform the miracle of the Eucharist, just as the donkey colt was completely powerless to save the world. And yet, if that man hadn't answered his call to the priesthood, Christ would not be able to come; he would have no donkey to ride. The priest gives his poor, imperfect, ordinary self to Christ, and through him Christ comes into the Eucharist, just as he came into Jerusalem riding the donkey colt. 

This is another case of Jesus' constant strategy. He comes into the world through us, through our ordinary, human cooperation; he comes riding on a plain, ordinary donkey.

This is the way our Lord has decided to work in the world. And so we should consciously lend him a hand. We should make ourselves into the best donkey colts we can be, carrying Christ wherever he wants to go.

The key to being good donkeys is obedience, docility. Our motto in life should be the one he taught us: Thy will be done. If he wants us to turn to the right, we go right; if he wants us to turn to the left, we go left. 

This is the lesson the Blessed Virgin Mary learned, and it was the mark of her greatness. Remember her response to the Angel Gabriel? "Let it be done to me according to your word." 

Christ himself also gives us the example of docility.

His whole earthly life was lived in perfect obedience to his Father's will, as the first and second readings today remind us: "I have not rebelled," the prophet Isaiah speaks in the name of the Messiah; "He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death," St Paul explains. 

I am sure that each one of us wants to bring Christ into the lives of those around us. We want to share with others the precious faith we have received. We want him to bring his love, his forgiveness, his wisdom, and his grace into those lives. We want him to ride right through the gates of Jerusalem and into the hearts of everyone we love, everyone we work with, everyone we know, everyone who is in need. He wants the same thing. All he needs is for us to be good donkeys, and he will take care of the rest.

Today, as we celebrate his Triumphal entry and receive him once again in Holy Communion, let's thank him for coming to save us by becoming one of us, and let's renew our commitment to be good, docile, dependable donkeys, so he can conquer more and more Jerusalems.