The Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
Jesus remained hidden with Peter, John, James, and Lazarus in the same underground chambers where Lazarus had hidden after his resurrection, as He was being persecuted. The Blessed Virgin, along with six of the holy women, also remained hidden in Lazarus’s house during those days. These hiding places were located behind Lazarus’s house and were arranged for comfortable habitation. Jesus, Lazarus, and his three apostles occupied a large space supported by columns, where several lamps burned. The holy women occupied a corner separated from the rest by a gate. Of the other disciples, some were in the lodging they had outside the village and others in various locations. Jesus announced that tomorrow would be the day of His triumphal entry; He ordered all the apostles and disciples to be summoned and spoke at length with them. The apostles were sad. With Judas, He showed Himself to be kind and even gave him the task of notifying the missing apostles and disciples. Judas liked these assignments very much, as he enjoyed making himself important and appearing capable.
Afterward, Jesus taught Lazarus and the holy women a parable. He began by speaking of the Earthly Paradise, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the promise of the Redeemer. He spoke of the increase and growth of evil and of the small number of faithful workers in God’s garden. He then linked this to the parable of the King who had a magnificent garden, to which came a woman who showed the king a splendid garden of aromatic spices that bordered the king’s possessions. This woman said to the king: "If that man leaves the country, it is proper for the king to buy his garden and establish his plantation of aromas there." The king, however, wanted to plant garlic and onions in the garden of that poor man, who esteemed his garden of aromatic spices so much and held it as a sacred place destined only for noble plants. The king sent for the owner of the garden, but he did not want to leave his possession or depart from there.
I saw this man—how he cultivated his garden and cared for it himself. He was persecuted in every way, and they even tried to stone him in his own garden, so that the man fell ill with grief and pain. Finally, it happened that the king lost his father and everything he had; in contrast, the garden and all the things of the poor man prospered greatly. At that moment, I saw this blessing upon the man in the form of a beautiful tree that grew until it covered the surface of the earth. I saw the entire parable unfold as a reality, and the prosperity of that man as a budding, growing, spreading, and developing, and how from there the world was watered and received light, dew, rain, and fertility. This blessing spread to the most distant regions. Jesus explained the parable, saying that Satan and his kingdom of evil is that king who mistreats the Son of God, to whom the Father Himself has entrusted the garden to cultivate. He said that just as sin and death had begun in a garden, so the Passion of the One who took sin upon Himself would begin in a garden, and the triumph would be completed with the Resurrection in a garden.
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### Preparations for the Entry
After this, there was a meager meal, and as it was already dark, the disciples retired to the departments of Lazarus’s house. The following morning, Jesus sent the disciples Eremenzear and Silas to Jerusalem through the gardens and estates of Bethphage, using non-royal paths so they could open gates and barriers and clear the passage to Jerusalem. He told them that on the road to Bethphage, near the lodging through which the path goes, they would find a donkey with her colt in the meadow; they were to tie the donkey to the fence, and if anyone asked why they were doing it, they should answer that the Lord commanded it. He ordered them to prepare and set the path all the way to the temple and then return.
I saw how these two disciples prepared the road, opening the gates and removing every obstacle. The large lodging, in whose meadows the donkey and the colt were, had a courtyard with a well. The donkey belonged to a foreigner who had left it there while going to the temple. The disciples tied the donkey and left the colt free. I saw them afterward removing every hindrance from the road until near the temple. The food merchants whom Jesus had cast out of the temple had returned to occupy their places. The disciples went straight to them and told them they must vacate because the Lord would make His triumphal entry. When they had fulfilled all this, they returned via the main road to Bethphage.
Meanwhile, Jesus had sent a portion of the most faithful apostles by the common road to Jerusalem to announce the triumphal entry to Mary Mark, Veronica, Nicodemus, the sons of Simeon, and other friends. Then Jesus headed with all the other apostles toward Bethphage. The holy women, with the Blessed Virgin at the lead, followed Jesus at a certain distance. When He reached a house on the road with a courtyard, porch, and galleries, He stopped and gave several orders. He sent two disciples with blankets, which they had brought from Bethany or Bethphage, to harness the young donkey with them, telling the owner that the Lord needed the animal.
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### The Procession Begins
Jesus spoke to the people who were gathering from those open galleries where they had settled with Mary Most Holy and the holy women. Jesus stood above the people surrounding Him. The entire house was decorated with branches, palms, leaves, and flowers; the walls were covered with hangings. Jesus spoke of prudence and foresight, and the use of good judgment, because the disciples asked Him why He took these local paths. He told them that dangers should be avoided and that they should try to help themselves rather than leaving everything to chance. That was why He had ordered the road to be prepared, the donkey sought, and it to be tied.
Jesus organized the procession. He made the apostles walk in pairs by His side, telling them they must represent Him after His death in the community. Peter was the first; then those who would go to the most distant parts to preach the Gospel. The last ones in front with Jesus were John and James the Less. All carried palm branches. When the two disciples from Bethphage saw the Lord coming, they went to meet Him with the donkey and the colt. They placed blankets over the animal so that only the head and tail were visible.
Jesus then donned the white festive vestment worn by the disciples; He adjusted the wide sash with signs and letters and a stole that reached his feet, ending in a kind of embroidered shield at the tips. The two disciples helped Him sit upon the animal, which had no reins, but only a narrow cloth around its neck hanging down. I cannot say if Jesus rode the donkey or the colt, for both were of equal height and one animal walked beside the other. Eliud and Silas went at Jesus' sides and Eremenzear behind; these were followed by the new disciples whom Jesus had brought or received in recent times.
When the procession was in order, the Blessed Virgin, who always remained humble and last, placed herself this time at the head of the holy women. They began to sing as they walked, and the people who had gathered in Bethphage now joined the procession. Jesus told them again to observe which Jews were only waving branches and placing them in His path, which were spreading their garments, and which were doing both at once. The latter would be those who sought God's honor not only through their own self-denial but also with their worldly riches.
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### Arrival at the Temple
When one goes from Bethany, Bethphage stays to the right, looking toward Bethlehem. The Garden of Olives separates the two roads. It was located on low, damp ground and formed a poor hamlet of a few houses on both sides of the road leading to Jerusalem. The house from which they took the donkey is somewhat set back from the road in a beautiful meadow. The path rises from there and descends toward the valley in the hills between the Garden of Olives and Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, the same merchants whom Eremenzear and Silas had dislodged from their stalls because the Lord was to enter solemnly began to decorate the road: they removed stones from the ground and planted shrubs and long branches, joining them at the top in the form of arches, and hung yellow fruits resembling apples from them. The disciples sent to Jerusalem notified many of Jesus’s entry, and now they went out to meet the Master, as did many foreigners who had arrived for the upcoming Passover festivities. Many foreigners had also come to see Jesus, having heard of the resurrection of Lazarus, who was very well known.
The road from Bethphage to Jerusalem goes through the Garden of Olives, which was an elevation, though not as high as the height where Jerusalem sat. Leaving Bethphage through the Garden of Olives, the temple can be seen at the end of the beautiful road lined with trees, gardens, and orchards. Those leaving the city went to meet those forming Jesus’s procession, which advanced singing psalms. At that moment, some priests also came out with their vestments and wanted to stop them; they remained perplexed for a moment while the priests addressed Jesus, asking for the reason for His conduct and why He did not prevent those songs, those acclamations, and that tumult of people. Jesus replied that if they were to keep silent, the stones of the road would speak. With this, the priests withdrew.
The High Priest assembled the council. They summoned the relatives of those following Jesus—men, women, and children—as well as those who went out to meet Jesus from Jerusalem; they locked them in the large courtyard and sent people to spy on what was happening in Jesus’s procession. Among the crowds acclaiming Jesus, many tore off branches and palms and placed them on the ground toward the temple, and took off their cloaks and other outer garments to place them in Jesus’s path. I saw some who even took off their clothing from the waist up. Children left school and mixed with the crowd. Veronica, who had two children with her, even took off the veil she wore and placed it on the road, and I saw that she took clothes from her children to throw them in the Lord's path. She joined the holy women coming behind; I counted seventeen. The road already had so many branches, leaves, cloaks, and fabrics that it was all like a carpet, passing under triumphal arches made of tree branches.
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### Jesus's Sorrow and the Cleansing of the Temple
I saw that Jesus wept thinking that so many who acclaimed Him today would soon ask for His death. The apostles wept when Jesus told them that one of them would sell Him to His enemies. Jesus wept upon seeing the temple that would soon be destroyed. When Jesus reached the city gates, the joy and clamor of the crowds increased. They began to place the sick of all kinds in His path. Jesus had to stop frequently, dismount, and heal everyone indiscriminately. Among the joyful crowd, I saw that some enemies of Jesus had mixed in, shouting and inciting a tumult.
As they approached the temple, the decoration was even more striking. They had arranged fenced areas at the sides of the road; among plants and trees, they had let little lambs run about, decorated with ribbons, which they usually had for sale and use in sacrifices. There were lambs, sheep, and long-necked birds. These were the best animals usually chosen for sale and sacrifice. The journey from the city gate to the temple, which can be done in less than half an hour, lasted three long hours.
The enemies of Jesus, meanwhile, had ordered all the city gates to be closed, so that when Jesus dismounted near the temple and the disciples wanted to return the donkey and the colt, they could not leave; neither could the women. They were not reopened until the evening. Now they were all in the temple; the holy women entered as well. Everyone had to go without eating that day, for the Pharisees had closed the exits until the evening. Magdalene was extremely worried about not being able to offer drink or food to Jesus.
When the gates were opened in the evening, the holy women returned to Bethany, and later Jesus arrived with the apostles. Magdalene, whom I saw so distressed for Jesus, prepared a meal for the Lord and the disciples. As it was already dark, Jesus entered Lazarus’s courtyard, and Magdalene brought Him water in a basin, washed His feet, and dried them with a cloth she had over her shoulders. Then they went to have a refreshment, as it was not a full meal. Again, Magdalene approached Jesus and poured a very precious ointment over His head. I saw that Judas, passing by her, murmured at this action, and that Magdalene told him she could never forget what Jesus had done for her and for her brother Lazarus. Jesus retired to the lodging of Simon the Leper, where many people had gathered, and there He taught. From here He went to the lodging of the apostles, where He spoke for a short time, returning afterward to the house of the one called Simon, cured of leprosy.
The next day, when He returned to Jerusalem with the apostles, He was hungry; it seemed to me that He hungered for the conversion of the Jews and yearned to die for them. He had wished to have completed the work of His Passion and Death, which He understood would be heavy and caused Him fear. He approached a fig tree on the road, and seeing it had nothing but leaves and no fruit, He cursed it, saying that no fruit should ever be born from it again. The same would happen to those who did not believe in Him. I knew that the fig tree was, in this case, the old law that was to be replaced by the vine of the new Christian law of grace.
On the way to the temple, I still saw many arches, banners, and branches from yesterday. In the first gallery in front of the temple, many vendors had settled again. Some had baskets on their backs or boxes that they opened and placed on trestles they also brought with them. I saw coins on the tables joined in various ways with small chains, hooks, or leather straps; they had drawn or engraved figures, yellowish, dark, white, and of other colors. I believe they were coins for hanging and decoration. I saw large baskets of birds, one on top of the other, and in a porch, calves and other animals for sacrifice. Jesus ordered all those people to go outside, and as they were slow to do so, He twisted a sash and drove them from the temple with it.
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### The Greeks and the Voice from Heaven
While Jesus was teaching in the temple, some distinguished people from Greece sent a messenger to Philip to ask Jesus where and when they could speak with Him, since they could not enter the temple because they were pagans. Philip told Andrew, and Andrew told the Lord, who replied that they should be near the house of John Mark when He left to head for Bethany.
Jesus continued His teaching. A look of deep sadness was noticeable in Him. When at one point He joined His hands and looked up, He saw a ray from a bright cloud descend upon Him, and something like the echo of a voice was heard. The people saw the light, looked up in wonder, and asked one another about it. Jesus continued His preaching, and the vision was repeated several times. Afterward, I saw Him descend from the seat, mingle among His apostles, and leave the temple unnoticed among the crowd.
When Jesus taught, the disciples would put a white cloak on Him. When He finished speaking, they took off that festive cloak, and thus Jesus could easily pass unobserved through the crowd. Around the teaching seat, there were three tiers of steps for the listeners to sit. The railings of these three steps were decorated with various carvings. In the temple, there was no figure or statue at all: only decorations of vines, clusters of grapes, animals offered in sacrifice, and swaddled children, as I have also seen in some of Mary Most Holy's embroideries (perhaps Moses saved from the waters).
It was broad daylight when Jesus met His disciples at the house of John Mark. The Greeks arrived, and Jesus spoke with them for a few minutes. Among them were some women who stayed behind the men. I saw that these men were converted and were among the first to be baptized after Pentecost.