Reflection for Sunday April 10th, Palm Sunday & Holy Week

By Brian Maher OMI

After six weeks of waiting, we enter the central and most important week in the Christian calendar. It is the culmination of Jesus’ life and ministry and for those who believe it is the week that changed our world forever.

Growing up in the sixties in Ireland it was so much easier to enter into the events of Holy Week. Everything – radio, television, newspapers, etc. – tailored articles and programmes to keep a focus on the Christian events being celebrated. There was a kind of societal movement through the week which carried everyone along and made it easier to become part of Jesus’ last days.

Now most of that is gone. Easter is about chocolate, baby lambs and cuddly bunnies. It takes a definite decision and a clear commitment to even be aware of the Christian importance of these days.

For us as Christians everything we believe in, everything we are, starts and finishes in the events of Holy Week. St. Paul, writing not too many years after the events themselves said, “…If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and so is your faith.” (1 Cor 15:14)

In the same letter he writes, “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…” (1 Cor 1:23)

Imagine! Unless the Resurrection is real for us, unless it is part of who we are, then everything we say is useless and our faith means nothing.

Many very good people balk when they come to the Cross and Resurrection. They can like the parables and wisdom of Jesus; they can appreciate his healings and compassion; they can even want to model their lives on what he said and did…… but……that he died in the way he did, as a tortured, ridiculed criminal, nailed to a cross….AND …. then rose from the dead!  No! a bridge too far, too much!  It is either nonsense and foolishness or a stumbling block, something I may want to believe but just can’t! Yet, if we call ourselves Christian this is exactly what we believe, and not only believe it, it must shape who we are, what we say, what we do, even what we think.

This is a question we must carry into every Holy Week. We cannot afford to be complacent. We must reflect every Easter on how well “I believe that Jesus died and was buried, and on the third day, rose from the dead…” (The Creed)

How do I judge how strongly I believe this? By looking at the things I say and do and think! Are they words, actions and thoughts that spring from an unshakable conviction that, no matter how bad things become, all will be well because Jesus rose from the dead? …OR… do my words, actions and thoughts sum up an internal despondency, a sense of confusion and doubt or an anger at the way things are?

Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson of the USA, once said this, “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.”

What is very striking in the Acts of the Apostles is that in the early Church the mystery of Easter is not something the first followers of Jesus believed or understood in an objective, rational, logical way. No! each one of them states repeatedly that their faith comes from an ‘experience’ of the Risen Jesus. For each of them, “he appeared to me…” is where their conviction starts and ends.

It is the same for us, we too must ‘experience’ the Risen Lord. We must ‘meet’ him.

Even St. Paul, who never met Jesus and spent years persecuting his first followers, is at pains to tell us that his own faith is founded on his ‘experience’ of the risen Jesus. “…and last of all, like one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Cor 15:8)

And this brings me, maybe a bit awkwardly, to the crux of the matter. No number of words from me or anyone else can bring us to ‘experience’ the risen Lord. No reflection, no matter how eloquent and theological, will allow us to ‘encounter’ Jesus, who died and rose again and is with us always. 

St. Augustine put it like this: “And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.”

It is in our hearts, and only in our hearts, that we find the Risen Lord.

Holy Week is ultimately a journey we must make alone, in the company only of Jesus.

I was amused recently when I read that “one of the huge difficulties experienced with clergy (off all denominations), is their inability to simply stay quiet and allow God to speak in that still space silence opens for us. Clergy…”, this article said, “…constantly feel the need to tell every story, offer every explanation and fill every silence with more and more words.”

How true, I thought to myself, for everyone else…except me!

And so, rather than offer more words about today’s Gospel, I offer this invitation as a way for you to walk through this Holy Week with Jesus:

Each day of Holy Week, find somewhere quiet where you can be alone for fifteen minutes. In that quiet place, recall the events of whatever day of Holy Week you are celebrating. On Sunday, recall the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) only; on Thursday, the Last Supper and betrayal by Judas only, etc… If the events of Holy Week are familiar enough for you to call to mind, just do so. If not, read them in Luke, chapters 22-24.

Close your eyes, and then in your mind recall the words of the Gospel story and try to imagine what was happening … as Jesus came into Jerusalem – the excitement of the crowd, the palm branches at his feet, chanting that he was the Messiah. Watch how quiet Jesus is; he says nothing at all. He goes to the Temple, looks around and then leaves Jerusalem again! What is he thinking? What are the apostles thinking? what are the Pharisees thinking?

Fifteen minutes, that’s all, to walk with Jesus gently and restfully. Feel free to talk to him, ask him questions, talk to the others with him. Let them reply to you.

After your fifteen minutes offer a short prayer of thanks to God. Then gently leave Jesus where he is on the evening of Palm Sunday. Tomorrow you will return to him.

If you can do this every day during Holy Week, while you may find it difficult, persevere and I promise on Easter Sunday you will be very glad you did it.

And now I will be quiet and let God do the talking, within your heart.

Remember the words of St. Augustine: “And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.”

Many thanks,

Brian.

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection you would like to share, I would be delighted to hear from you – please feel free to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie