With these enthusiastic exclamations, which the Church recalls on the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, Jesus Christ was welcomed in Jerusalem with the hope of goodness and eternal life on earth. The day before, He had brought Lazarus, dead for four days, back to life, and the news of this miracle gathered thousands of Israelites at the gates of the city, waiting for Him to save them from the oppression of the Romans and to establish the kingdom of justice. Although he entered Jerusalem not on horseback like a noble ruler, but on a donkey, and shows the nature of his visit, they did not recognize the Son of God and Savior and did not realize what he had come to them for. 

"And when he аpproached and saw the city, he wept." (Luke 19:41) Foreseeing the utter ruin and overthrow that awaited the city and its inhabitants, Jesus uttered, "Because you did not recognize and welcome God's personal visit."

"He speaks, of course, of his visit to Jerusalem - of the only begotten Son of God, who became incarnate in order to redeem our sins, to destroy death and to open for all who believe in Him the doors of the Kingdom of God," notes in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Alexandra Karamikhaleva - theologian, author of Orthodox literature and editor-in-chief of the Church Journal of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

"I was thinking about these words of the Lord and to what extent do we ourselves recognize God's visits in our lives, to what extent do we say 'Glory to God' and to what extent are we grateful for them?  And God's visits are all the occasions when we encounter a person on our life's journey with their needs - for help, for support, for encouragement, for a kind word, for a smile, for any kind of love and attention. God's visits are also all sicknesses, sorrows and deprivations, of course. All the trials that God permits in our lives are not to punish us, but so that we may see for ourselves what are the infirmities in our souls, so that we may see in ourselves all the remnants of unbelief, of lack of patience, of envy, of attachment to material goods, and in due time rid ourselves of them. And woe to us if we do not notice these visits of God and respond to them properly, as well as to all the wonderful things God sends into our lives daily. All the consolations, all the joys He gives us are also God's visits to which we are to respond with "Glory to God", to praise God for them and to be thankful. Otherwise, I fear that what has befallen Jerusalem and its citizens awaits us."

"I'm not really sure if we realize that today we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ, who raised Lazarus four days before entering Jerusalem.  He brought him back to life to serve God for many more years. We celebrate Christ who, by His own crucifixion and Resurrection, descended into hell, opened its doors, and brought forth from there the righteous of the Old Testament, all God's pleasers who lived until the Nativity of Christ, until His birth in the flesh, death on the cross, and Resurrection. By His life in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ conquered death. He opens for us again the doors of the Kingdom of God, and that way is open to each of us, if we really ask ourselves if this is what we believe and if our faith is such that it transforms our whole life.  We should have our faith is such that our every decision, our every action, our every thought, even brings us one step closer to what we are meant to be, to be God-like, to draw closer to the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."