My heart and mind wander to vast and varied reflections about what those days must have been like for Jesus...the days immediately following His entry into Jerusalem.
I encourage you to take a look at the 20th chapter of Luke. Jesus enters Jerusalem (ie, the event commemorated on Palm Sunday) at the end of Chapter 19. We are reminded of how he wept, even then, at the inability of the people to really get the truth of his teaching and the depth of the Father's love. He entered the temple and went into something close to a rage....unleashing a passionate effort to open the space where his last days of teaching could unfold. From the moment of the cleansing on, scripture tells us that he was active... teaching the crowds using increasingly powerful images to convey His Wisdom about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.Luke 21:37-38
He was giving it all for the sake of all people, for all time. His sacrifice intersects time and space and reaches with precision to each of us...
Can you get up early each morning this week to listen to him? What are some of the lessons you can absorb as you read again of his last days in Jerusalem? It may be helpful to practice the discipline of Lectio Divina in these in between times. You can read an extensive article about Lectio Divina or just use this simplified version:
1. Read the scripture. (Luke 19-21)
2. When a word or phrase claims your attention, close your bible (or the screen
on your computer ) and allow yourself to wonder about its meaning for you.
3. See if there is a way that you are being called to change that relates to
the word that has claimed your attention.
4. Express your trust that God is with you and that God will provide whatever
is necessary for the meaning of the scripture passage to take root!
These between times (between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) were times when Jesus was giving his ministry all that he had.... how can you continue the Lenten Journey by offering even MORE time for prayer and sacrificial living than you have even up until now?
2 comments:
Such a passionate, quieting experience to replace yourself (through deep meditation) with the visions of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. Holy Week, growing up in Catholic school was humbling, with church several times per day and the Stations of the cross daily as well. Fasting, even as a young child had quite an impact. The message was not correct though, as it instilled our guilt for the death of Jesus, instead of the Glory of what we really are when we lose our body and body- attached minds/emotions. Can you imagine instilling guilt on a child?
Christ's rage at us lowly human's 'not getting it' was justified, as most just 'don't get it and if we do, it's difficult to maintain' always wanting or 'if-only's.'
I am presently studying a course regarding Truth. There is NO answer to what Truth is, because we ARE Truth. The Resurrection from our guilt made selves, to the Glory we truly are.
The Presence is of the moment in it's peaceful non-attachment to any human emotion except for pure Joy/Love, particularly the lowly ego-self made, actually non existent emotions.
The Truth is that we are ALL sons/daughters of God, letting His/Her Divinity shine through (if we will let it). When you have a Spirit as Jesus, who knows all this, it must have been unfathomably frustrating for Him to see that the people just didn't get it. Talk until you are 'blue in the face.' I don't think the Apostles got it either. We are just beginning to 'get it' some centuries later.
Nothing more beautiful than to meditate on the events of Palm Sunday, Passover and Maundy Thursday. It becomes very humble, tender with gratitude and peaceful after that, until the Glory on Sunday.
I am appreciating the Holy Week so much more in this 40+ years after Catholic school, as it is much more holy and meaningful rather than guilt laden.
The Resurrection is also about the Truth.
Thanks for your beautiful writings. Jenn
Jenn,I am reminded of something a monk at the Abbey of the Genesee told me. We were speaking about prayer...and how some folks see it as a way to move away from reality's pain and suffering. The monk said that prayer doesn't move us away from reality. It moves us into reality. All that the world says is reality or all that the world would have us believe is true is actually a distortion of truth. Prayer moves us closer to the heart of God, which is both the source and the essence of truth. From that attitude of prayer we can then return to this or that situation in the world. Grounded in prayer we may find some way to nourish or support the seeds and sprouts of God's truth (which is Love and Light)that our breaking into and through the world.
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