It’s not Easter yet, but it won’t be long now, just over a week away. This coming weekend we celebrate Palm Sunday and enter into the commemoration of one of the most significant weeks in the story of humanity and its salvation. In Irish we call it “An tSeachtain Mhór – The Great Week.” It is more than a commemoration – it is an invitation when we are asked to accompany Jesus on his journey beginning with his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem next Sunday. Like all meaningful journeys that we make, it has a purpose and a destination. That is the celebration of Easter.
And what joy we will feel when we get there! But we have a big problem. To get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday we have to walk through a graveyard in the dark. The only road from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday runs right through the middle of Good Friday. That road is not an easy road to walk. There are those who don’t have the stomach for the journey, those who seek that ouch-less faith, will stay home until Easter Sunday, showing up just in time for the trumpets and the lilies and the hallelujah chorus. The rest of us better hang onto one another as tightly as we stand together at the foot of the cross. It’s going to hurt to see him hanging there, knowing the agony he’s going through and knowing further that the only reason he’s putting himself through all that is his love for you and me.
The joy of Easter will be all the more meaningful if we participate fully in the journey and find our place in the story. As the Chinese proverb reminds us; “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and we take our first steps into Holy Week on this coming Sunday as we join Jesus in his entry to Jerusalem. Where are we present at that parade? It’s worth reminding ourselves that many of the voices that shouted “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday were the same people and voices who cried “Crucify Him” just a few days later.
The Greek author Plutarch describes how kings are supposed to enter a city. He tells about one Roman general, Aemilius Paulus, who won a decisive victory over the Macedonians. When Aemilius returned to Rome, his triumphant procession lasted three days. On the final day, Aemilius himself entered Rome, mounted on a magnificent chariot. Aemilius wore a purple robe, interwoven with gold. He carried his laurels in his right hand. He was accompanied by a large choir singing hymns, praising the military accomplishments of the great Aemilius. That, my friends, is how a king enters a city.
But the King of Kings? He entered riding on a lowly donkey. If he had consulted his political advisors, they would have been aghast. What was he up to? Leaders are supposed to project strength and power.
Corrie Ten Boom was a famous Dutch Christian whose testimony of suffering in Nazi concentration camps and God’s grace through it all touched millions of lives. A few years ago, in a press conference following a ceremony in which Corrie Ten Boom was given an honorary degree, one of the reporters asked her if it was difficult remaining humble while hearing so much acclaim. She replied immediately, “Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in his glory, I give him all the praise and all the honour.”
The great spiritual writer, Father Henri Nouwen found a sculpture of Jesus on a donkey in the Augustiner Museum in Frieburg. He calls it one of the most moving Christ figures he knows. Nouwen found himself drawn to this sculpture. He sent postcards of it to his friends and keeps one in his prayer book. Looking at the face of Jesus he reflects, “There is melancholy, but also peaceful acceptance. There is insight into the fickleness of the human heart, but also immense compassion. There is a deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God’s will. Above all, there is love, an endless, deep and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God and reaching out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be. There is nothing that he does not fully know. There is nobody whom he does not fully love.”
This special week calls us to make a choice to receive God’s Christ, and to let our lives be made whole again by the power of God. As you begin this Holy Week, can you truly say in your heart, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” The choice is up to you!
Fr. Brendan Quinlivan, VF, Ceantar na Lochanna is Communications Officer for the Diocese of Killaloe
Clare Champion Article 11th of April 2025