“Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem manifests the coming of the kingdom that the Messiah-King, welcomed into his city by children and the humble of heart, is going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection.”
Obiter Dicta: Sister Ann Astell, a professor in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame University, in an article entitled “Entering Jerusalem from the East” (2017), writes
“Jesus must have entered the city through its eastern gate, the Golden Gate. Clearly visible from the spot where we overlooked the city, the Golden Gate is sealed. Closed by the Muslims in A.D. 810, reopened by the crusaders, it was walled up again by Saladin in 1187 and by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541. It has remained closed for over four centuries. Why did Jesus enter through that particular gate on the day of his triumph, when people openly hailed him as Messiah and king? Saint Matthew writes that he rode into Jerusalem as its king aback a donkey and a colt in fulfillment of a prophecy (Zechariah 9:9). Another prophecy, Ezekiel’s mystical vision of the new temple, relates: “Then [the angel] brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. And there, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east” (Ezekiel 43:1). The prophet further observes, “The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city,” and writes later that he saw the eastern gate sealed shut: “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it.” Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions all associate the eastern gate with the approach of the Divine, with the coming of the Messiah. Following the Proto-Gospel of James (circa A.D. 150), Christian art frequently depicts the parents of the Virgin Mary meeting at the Golden Gate with a kiss and an embrace, heralding her Immaculate Conception. Destined to be the porta coeli, the “gate of heaven,” Mary is the one who will welcome the God-Man, the Incarnate Word of God, into the world. She is also a sealed gate, ever virgin, for the Lord has entered through her. Significantly, the Golden Gate — the “gate called the Beautiful” (Acts 3:2) — is the site of one of the first post-Resurrection miracles worked by the apostles in the name of Jesus, the healing of a cripple who begged at that gate and whose “walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8) give expression to the Easter joy of the whole Church. The Lord who lives, who has arisen — he lives also in us. He teaches us, even now, what is necessary for peace.”
God does not just pop into our lives, invited and/or uninvited, from-time-to-time. Rather, God is an ever present part of the fabric of our individual and communal lives. Being a part of our human condition, it makes sense that God would utilize symbols and signs whose meaning would become clear to our minds and resonate within our hearts as needed by us. As Jesus moves toward the Golden Gate those persons in attendance, both those persons physically present that special day and later those persons present in their imagination through reading of this event, come to a realization of the significance of Jesus entering this gate that God is active in the fabric of our lives.
As our minds and hearts soften and widen, we become aware of the multiple ways God is present in and working within our lives.
Catholic Philosophy and Theology 