While praying in anticipation of the coming of Palm
Sunday, this image emerged in my thoughts. Here are some of my thoughts that I derived
from the image. Perhaps you may have some personal to yourself.
For those who were looking forward to Palm Sunday and the
beautiful liturgy that surrounds it this Palm Sunday with the churches empty
and the church doors locked seems incomprehensible. At this time in our society
with all that is being denied us because of this terrible pandemic the lost of
access to worship crushes our hearts.
As I looked at the image above, I realized that what is
missing in the 2020 picture is not Jesus, rather it is the people. Jesus is not
taken away from us, his triumphant entry into our lives is not being prevented.
Look, there he is: “Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
This gives us an opportunity to penetrate more deeply
into the Mystery and meaning of these sacred days we are now entering. Because of
man’s abandonment of God’s design that man should embrace truth and holiness of
life Sin and Death has carried us away from God; taken us out of the picture,
no longer able to gather with the saints in worship. We are prisoners of the guilt
of our sins.
But, “Behold, Jesus comes!” Palm Sunday and the
days of Holy Week are not about us saving us, making us feel good about us, it’s
about Jesus savings us who have been ripped out of the picture, rounded up by
Satan and imprisoned in the inescapable darkness of death. Jesus comes to
defeat Satan, to free us from the bondage of guilt and to restore us ounce again into
the "picture" – the picture where the saints are gathered praising God and singing,
“Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is the he who comes in the name of the
Lord; hosanna in the highest.”
Has there ever been a time when all the churches were locked
up? I was reminded of the Cold War days when all of eastern Europe was under the control
of Communism. Indeed, the churches were locked up, the priests were rounded up and
put into prison, many executed and anyone who would be caught displaying any
adherence to religion would be severally punished.
Then in 1979, Pope St. John Paul II made his triumphant 9 day visit to Poland speaking out boldly to all Catholics of eastern Europe, and thus began the end of the reign of Communism. “Upwards of half a million cheering, weeping Poles sank to their knees when "Our own Pope" stepped from his white helicopter in a field outside the town.” [ … Link … ]
Catherine de Hueck Doherty, founder of the Madonna House
movement who had escaped from communist Russia would say of the of
Russian people under oppression that while there may not have been any outward evidence
of religion, under every Russian bed there was hidden sacred icons which would
come out at night for devotion.
For us in these days of confinement, while liturgy my be
taken from us grace is not, Jesus is not. Indeed, we have now time, time to
explore some of the deeper approaches to prayer that have been taught by the
great mystics of prayer.
On the side panel of this blog I have provided some
direction to just such prayer.
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