Palm Sunday--- Holy Week 2024.
" For five weeks of Lent we have been preparing, by works of charity, love, for the celebration of Our Lord's Paschal Mystery. Christ Jesus entered in triumph into His own city---to suffer , to die, and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry-- and follow him with a lively faith. United with Him on the cross, may we share His Resurrection and new life." Opening prayer for the Palm Sunday Liturgy.
As we journey with a sometimes dark faith into he days of Holy Week it will be only through the gift of real, radical honesty will we be led to this understanding. It will only be because I am honest about the events of the here and now, THIS moment, this day, this week, will I make the mind blowing realization, MY EVERY MOMENT, HOUR, DAY, WEEK are the events of Mystery. I do not lead an ordinary life, because of my lively faith, I am being led into a gradual understanding of this revelation, my own sufferings, passion, deaths are not endings, but the stepping stones, thresholds, always leading to a new and a more vitalized life. With these new lenses we can begin to accept, "Life, is not a problem to be solved. It is a mystery to be lived." That mystery is always, some thorn from the crown of thorns, some splinter, from the wood on which The Historical Jesus, was crucified. Yes, " we are Jesus's story today" (O' Shea). Yes every moment a contemporary gospel is being written, by flesh, and bones human beings.
The gospel ,you are in the process of writing, may be the ONLY bible some individuals will ever read. The more honest we are, in this honesty we are empowered, by Grace, to connect with the human journey of, the other. In this sacramental encounter The Wounded, Jesus The Christ in you, reaches out, and connects with The Wounded, Jesus The Christ right there in front of you. A story, a gospel story is shared and new life is channeled. It is a unique sharing in The Resurrected Life, that will come to consciousness, in "the fullness of time". A time which is not Chronos, measured, controlled, but Kairos, wild uncontrollable time, un-measurable, much to our chagrin of the false self and to the liberation of the true self. The deep paradoxes of the spiritual journey will be always front and center this week, in particular. Paradoxes, are sacramental, and so have to be reverenced.
Another prayer from the present past, " May the changing moods of the human heart never blind us to the love, that is ,always offered." Being Irish we are blessed with serious mood changes. There was a chapter of a book I once read with this headline, "The black mood of the Irish." On Palm Sunday we have the crowds shouting, chanting their greetings of welcome, and recognition to rabbi Jesus. Just a few days later, they will shout "Crucify Him, crucify Him". Peter was prepared to go and die with his Master, given the right challenging circumstances, Peter "cursing, and swearing" denied that he ever knew This Jesus of Nazareth. Let us remember became the first pope ?? "the ways of The Gracious Mysterious One are definitely not our ways." We are during this tumultuous week, be buffered by our thoughts of our changing moods and the resulting actions and consequences that are so hard to own, accept as part of our reality. Good Friday will be a tough slog. As it was for Jesus's , so it must be for you and I. We will encounter Simon and Veronica , an encounter which will lead to our awakening acceptance of the Simon, and, Veronica who journey within our depths. Always ready to be called on, sometimes in the darkest of times. They are never too busy, to distracted to hear our pleas for help.
Each day, is a new day in the mysterious life which has crammed within it, ALL the events of Holy Weeks, and we can live it one moment at at time. "Now is the acceptable time " for us to pray for the grace that the new awakenings may bring to us a deepening of radical faith, hope and prodigal love. I cannot say when we will meet again, "The Spirit blows where it wills," not according, to my changing moods.
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