Office Of Readings | Week 33, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Addresses Of Saint Andrew Of Crete | Behold, Your King Is Coming To You, The Holy One, The Saviour

Christian Art | Mary Intervenes For Souls In Purgatory | Christian Prayer | Prayers For The Dead | All Souls

Office Of Readings | Week 33, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Addresses Of Saint Andrew Of Crete | Behold, Your King Is Coming To You, The Holy One, The Saviour

‘Behold, your king is coming to you, the Holy One, the Saviour.’

Saint Andrew of Crete reflects on Christ’s coming by drawing together three interconnected themes: Christ’s humble entry, his continual approach to the soul, and the revelation of his glory upon the cross. His starting point is the Church’s memory of Palm Sunday, but he immediately shifts our attention from outward gestures to the inward dispositions that welcome Christ rightly. The ‘palm branches’ he asks us to offer are works of mercy; the ‘garments’ spread beneath Christ’s feet are the thoughts and intentions of the heart submitted to him. In this way, the historical event becomes the pattern of the Christian life: Christ desires to enter not only a city, but the whole being of each believer.

A central insight of this reading is that Christ comes in humility precisely so that he can draw us into union with himself. Andrew emphasises that the Lord who enters Jerusalem ‘mounted on a colt’ is also the Lord who ‘pervades all things’. His lowliness does not reduce his majesty; rather, it reveals his purpose. Christ comes as the gentle King who calls sinners to repentance and restores those who have strayed. Because the One who approaches us is the same One who created and sustains us, the Christian need not fear his coming. The repeated invitation—’receive him’—underscores this confidence: the hands that formed us are the hands that save us.

The reading then contemplates Christ as light. Andrew traces this light from eternity into time: the light that existed before the world, that shone at the Nativity, that guided the Magi, and that remained unrecognised by many who encountered it. His point is not to recount history but to remind us that Christ’s coming is always a revealing—of God, of truth, and of ourselves. The light of Christ illumines the soul that welcomes him, and it exposes the resistance of the soul that does not.

Finally, Andrew identifies the cross as the moment of Christ’s true glorification. What appears to human eyes as humiliation is, in the eyes of faith, the definitive manifestation of divine glory. Christ himself speaks of his passion in these terms: ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified’. For Andrew, the lifting up of Christ on the cross is both his exaltation and the means by which he ‘draws all men to himself’. The light that entered the world and journeyed to Jerusalem shines most fully upon Calvary.

The reading teaches us that Christ’s coming is always purposeful: he comes to save, to transform, and to draw us into communion with himself. The right response, therefore, is not fear but openness—a readiness expressed through mercy, humility, and a willingness to let the Lord take possession of every part of our lives.

A Reading From The Addresses Of Saint Andrew Of Crete | Behold, Your King Is Coming To You, The Holy One, The Saviour

Let us say to Christ: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches the words inscribed above him on the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering with the whole of his being, he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us. Let us say to Zion in the words of the prophet: Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid. Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. Do not be afraid then: God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken.

Receive him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you. Receive him who laid your foundations on he palms of his hands. Receive him who laid your foundations on the palms of his hands. Receive him, for he took upon himself all that belongs to us except sin, to consume what is ours in what is his. Be glad, city of Zion, our mother, and fear not. Celebrate your feasts. Glorify him for his mercy, who has come to us in you. Rejoice exceedingly, daughter of Jerusalem, sing and leap for joy. Be enlightened, be enlightened, we cry to you, as holy Isaiah trumpeted, for the light has come to you and the glory of the Lord has risen over you.

What kind of light is this? It is that which enlightens every man coming into the world. It is the everlasting light, the timeless light revealed in time, the light manifested in the flesh although hidden by nature, the light that shone round the shepherds and guided the Magi. It is the light that was in the world from the beginning, through which the world was made, yet the world did not know it. It is that light which came to its own, and its own people did not receive it.

And what is this glory of the Lord? Clearly it is the cross on which Christ was glorified, he, the radiance of the Father’s glory, even as he said when he faced his passion: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him, and will glorify him at once. The Glory of which he speaks here is his lifting up on the cross, for Christ’s glory is his cross and his exaltation upon it, as he plainly says: When I have been lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.

Christian Prayer With Jesus

Lord Jesus Christ,
King of gentleness and Light eternal,
enter this day the city of our hearts.
Spread your peace over all our restless thoughts,
and lay your mercy upon all that is wounded within us.

Teach us to welcome you
with hands open in trust
and with lives adorned in works of compassion.
Draw our whole being into your own,
that we may live in your light
and share in your glory.

As you were lifted up on the cross,
draw us to yourself,
and dispel every fear with the radiance of your presence.
For you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

Glossary Of Christian Terms

Triumphal Entry – Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, fulfilling prophecy and revealing his kingship in humility.

Zion / Daughter of Zion – Biblical titles for Jerusalem, symbolically representing God’s people as a whole.

Incarnation – The mystery of the eternal Son of God taking on human flesh and becoming man.

Uncreated Light – A theological term referring to the divine light of God’s presence, eternal and not part of creation.

Glory of the Lord – In Christian theology, God’s visible, radiant presence; in Christ, supremely revealed in the cross.

Exaltation – The lifting up of Christ on the cross and his subsequent glorification in the resurrection and ascension.

Repentance – A sincere turning away from sin and toward God, involving both sorrow and reform of life.

Salvation – God’s work of freeing humanity from sin and death and bringing us into eternal communion with him.

Universal Salvation (in Andrew’s context) – Not the modern doctrine of universalism, but the proclamation that Christ’s saving work is offered to all people, without exception.

Palm Branches – Symbols of victory and rejoicing used in biblical celebrations, especially at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.