For five weeks we have been on a journey through Lent. This is a season that asks a number of things of us. In the first place, it asks that we make space to pause and look at our life. We have been doing this by listening to the readings week by week, and allowing them to help us focus on our belief in Jesus. While it has been important that we have found time to pause, Lent has also demanded of us that we be on the move and that we change. Often over these weeks you have probably heard reference to the Lenten journey. In a very obvious way it is a journey towards Easter and will conclude next week. But it is also a spiritual journey where we try to move from one point in our life to another. This is what we mean when we speak of conversion. During Lent the impetus for conversion comes from getting to know Jesus and the gospel he proclaimed. The more clearly we know him the more clearly we will see our own lives and know where we need reform.We have probably also come to realise during Lent that change and conversion are not immediate. We don’t suddenly wake up one day being different people, even if we might wish it. That is why we also speak of conversion as a journey. It takes time; it takes patience; and it takes perseverance. For this reason, the journey of Lent can be likened to a pilgrimage. Pilgrims know where they are heading, and they know that they have to travel a certain distance each day. They also know that they need to pace themselves so that they are not so exhausted by one day’s journey that they are unable to continue the next day. Pilgrims look for support on their journey. That support may come from mediating on a scene from the life of Jesus, or from other pilgrims who give advice on how to make progress on the next stage of the pilgrimage, or from the places they pass through each day.
On our Lenten pilgrimage Palm Sunday is an important day. The scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem has something of a pilgrimage quality to it. Crowds join Jesus and want to make the journey with him. On this pilgrimage they will come to know who he is. All the imagery of the scene – the donkey, the cloaks on the back of the donkey, and the palms on the ground – gives the impression that this is a royal occasion. Here Jesus comes among them as the long-awaited Messiah. They shout Hosanna. They welcome him without hesitation. But even in the gesture of riding on the donkey he is giving one important clarification about his identity. He is not exactly the sort of Messiah that they were expecting. As the gospel tells us, he is humble and rides on a beast of burden. So at this important moment on this
pilgrimage their understanding of the Messiah is being purified. Their knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah will be challenged and purified in the following days.
The incredible thing about Palm Sunday is that the mood so quickly changes. The chants of “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord” will have changed within a few days to chants of “Crucify him!” The pilgrimage route has moved from the royal road paved with palm branches to the way of the cross, where he is mocked and scorned. Surely this will challenge his followers even more to purify their image of the Messiah.
This week we will journey with him on this pilgrimage. This will be a time to learn the meaning of the violence and insults that Jesus endured. It will be a time to recognise that in the end, violence was a complete failure. Yes, it will take the eyes of faith to recognise this, and to see in the face of Jesus the gaze of divine love. During this week, and especially next weekend, let’s walk with him and allow ourselves to be loved by him. This means taking a risk, because in being confronted by his love we will begin to see more clearly our own need of conversion. Then we will know that our pilgrimage has borne fruit.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
