We are people of the New Jerusalem!

JRS can easily be compared to life in general.

1. God created humanity in holiness:
Even before the bodily birth of the Son of God, humanity was primarily willed by God as sinless and pure. JRS was a holy city from the beginning. JRS means “City of Wholeness.” (Yeru Shalem); others read it as a “City of Peace” (Yeru Shalom). It is a city in which one may find spiritual “wholeness.” Finally, Jerusalem is in essence a “City of Peace.” This is the original nature of humanity and the only ground to glorify God.

2. We always portrayed and argued that we are masters of life:
The gift of life is not our right to have; we are not the masters of life. We can never possess life. As the earliest records portray (Talmud) JRS was kept as a common land and never been divided among the 12 tribes. No one owned land in JRS as it was kept pure by religious influences. All our lives we tend to rent our lives to all kinds of vices and selfish indulgences to make our Holy Land – our hearts as slaves to evil and forces of death.

3. Human life is not an easy homework:
JRS the Holy City is the spiritual center of the Jewish life and culture for more than 3000 years. For Christians, JRS is the place where Jesus walked, breathed, and preached. Islam has its own share of the City. So many different people fought over JRS: Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamelukes, Turks, British, Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis. There are various forces that try to rule us at different times of life: convictions, ideologies, philosophies or even a complete loss of meaning.

4. Human life is sinful and needs God’s assistance all the time:
“This is a city that has been besieged about forty different times and destroyed (at least partially) on thirty-two different occasions. The rulership of Jerusalem has changed hands some twenty-six times. "The City of Peace" has known wars and destruction since it existence was first known to us from the Biblical record. (Ref: http://belovedjerusalem.com/). We hardly keep up our common name and values. Our selfishness is so great that we can sell our God and religion for meager pleasure and rewards.

5. We all need Jesus coming to our life (JRS) and die for us:
Being a Jew, Jesus would have visited JRS often. Luke’s Gospel is the theological reflection of Jesus on his way to JRS (11 to 21 chapters). This time it is going to be different: He enters our hearts as the King. The donkey symbolizing the beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit. When we become poor on earthly possessions Jesus elevates us to be rich in love. He suffers for us and his blood is all over us to purify us and make us clean (St. Paul).

6. This journey of Jesus brings meaning to the New JRS:
The Palm branch is a symbol of triumph and victory representing heaven in our midst. We have accepted Jesus as our King by promising Jesus to walk the way of victory over sin. We are not onlookers or travellers, we are the New JRS consecrated by Jesus thus our responsibility in the Church is great. Our victory does not depend on how happy we are in waving our palm leaves and decorate it in houses, rather how receptive we are in proving Jesus is king of our lives by the way we think, feel and act and witness God’s love. As these palms die and still be beautiful and meaningful so also our lives. Our Life is saved and we are the people of the New JRS. Amen.