Just wanted to share a short clip of yesterday's meditation from the Magnificat, as we enter into Holy Week and prepare to celebrate the saving passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord.
The holiest week of the liturgical year began yesterday with the celebration of Palm Sunday. On this Sunday of Passion week, we recall and celebrate how Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the children and all the people singing his praises. The Mass begins with this joyful blessing of palms, but the during the Gospel, we listen to the entire passion proclaimed from the Gospel of John (22:14-23:56). Suddenly those people who were praising him are crying out for his crucifixion. The sudden change of heart in those followers of Christ has often confused me, so I appreciated this reflection:
'Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion summons us to align ourselves either with Jesus or against him. It would seem that even to say "against" is ridiculous; are we not his followers? Well, perhaps we are not, really. Perhaps we are among the Jerusalemites who
welcomed him when he seemed the Messiah who would magically take away their problems, but
rejected him when he turned out to be a savior who
carried a cross and died upon it, and asked those who love him to
do the same.'
May we all embrace our Messiah
and His cross this Easter...
and our crosses as well.
Whenever you post excerpts from the Magnificat, I always think, "Oh, I should actually read those articles more often!"
ReplyDeleteSo thanks for that reminder! Hope you're having a great Holy Week!