Words Made Flesh: The Meaning of Hosanna

We use the Hebrew word "hosanna" as part of our Eucharistic Prayer in every liturgy, evoking Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem which we enter into in a special way every year on Palm Sunday. But what do we really mean when we say, "Hosanna"?


Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, in his commentary on this Sunday's readings for ZENIT*, "fleshes out" the word and its meaning in the context of our Palm Sunday liturgy:

"'Hosanna' was originally a pilgrim blessing that priests addressed in the Temple, but when it was joined to the second part of the acclamation 'who enters in the name of the Lord' it took on Messianic significance. It had become a designation of the one promised by God. It now became praise of Jesus, a greeting to him as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the one awaited and proclaimed by all the promises.

... "The full translation of 'hosanna' could read,
'Help (or save), please, O Son of David. Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. Help (or save), please, O Most High.'

"The crowd's welcome of Jesus with cries of 'hosanna,' for help, and the waving of palm fronds, ... invoked the liturgical formulas of Sukkot, which [in Jesus' time] had already been politicized by its use in the festival of independence, the first Hanukkah.

Maccabean Revolt

"The use of this liturgical formula to welcome Jesus was clearly purposeful. Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem was followed by his cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:14-16). This was plainly a scenario in emulation of the Maccabean [war of] liberation, calculated to stir messianic hopes. When the crowd called 'hosanna' and waved palm fronds, they knew full well what they were doing.

"In the hosanna acclamation, we find an expression of the complex emotions of the pilgrims accompanying Jesus and of his disciples: joyful praise of God at the moment of the processional entry, hope that the hour of the Messiah had arrived, and at the same time a prayer that the Davidic kingship and hence God's kingship over Israel would be reestablished (Benedict XVI, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' pp. 8-10).

"'Hosanna' as an urgent plea to help and save is universally valid. It is perennially appropriate to the human situation. It is a one-word prayer with potential political impact to unsettle oppressors everywhere, now as in ancient days, and should thus be translated and understood."



Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB is CEO of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada. He is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and writes a weekly commentary on the Sunday readings for Zenit.

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