"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; tell aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh, just, meek, and bringing salvation; meek truly is He, and riding on a beast of burden, and a young colt." It was not enough to have said colt alone, but He added to it also young, to show the youth of humanity in Christ, and the eternity of simplicity, which shall know no old age. And we who are little ones being such colts, are reared up by our divine colt - tamer. But if the new man in Scripture is represented by the ass, this ass is also a colt. "And he bound," it is said, "the colt to the vine," having bound this simple and childlike people to the word, whom He figuratively represents as a vine. For the vine produces wine, as the Word, produces blood, and both drink for health to men - wine for the body, blood for the spirit.

Χαῖρε σφόδρα͵ θύγατερ Σιών· κήρυσσε͵ θύγατερ Ἱερουσαλήμ· ἰδοὺ ὁ βασιλεύς σου ἔρχεταί σοι δίκαιος καὶ σῴζων͵ καὶ αὐτὸς πρᾶος καὶ ἐπιβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ ὑποζύγιον καὶ πῶλον νέον. Οὐκ ἤρκει τὸ πῶλον εἰρηκέναι μόνον͵ ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ νέον προσέθηκεν αὐτῷ͵ τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ νεολαίαν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος καὶ ἀγήρω μετὰ ἁπλότητος ἀιδιότητα ἐμφαίνων. Τοιούτους δὲ ἡμᾶς νέους πώλους τοὺς νηπίους ὁ θεῖος ἡμῶν πωλοδάμνης ἀνατρέφει. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὄνος εἴη ὁ νέος ἐν τῇ γραφῇ͵ πλὴν ἀλλὰ πῶλος ὄνος καὶ οὗτος. Καὶ τὸν πῶλον͵ φησί͵ προσέδησεν ἀμπέλῳ͵ τὸν ἁπλοῦν τοῦτον καὶ νήπιον λαὸν τῷ λόγῳ προσδήσας͵ ὃν ἄμπελον ἀλληγορεῖ· φέρει γὰρ οἶνον ἡ ἄμπελος͵ ὡς αἷμα ὁ λόγος͵ ἄμφω δὲ ἀνθρώποις ποτὸν εἰς σωτηρίαν͵ ὁ μὲν οἶνος τῷ σώματι͵ τὸ δὲ αἷμα τῷ πνεύματι.