Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. At the time we think of the death of Jesus. His death was the result of the courage of his convictions, belief and his willingness to fulfill his mission. He had lived his life with a message of compassion, of love for the poor and marginalized, at times criticizing the powerful in society who had failed to care for weak. He died at the hands of injustice.
Jesus is an example, like many after him, of the battle of good and evil. This battle is a battle that we also live within our daily lives between the attraction of doing good and the pull of compulsion.
As we begin Holy Week let us take our direction from the late American poet, Mary Oliver. Today describes travelling vast distances by remaining still. So maybe today let us travel with Jesus in our stillness, and ‘into the temple’.
I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
Photo from Poppy Thorpe of Pixabay
Ronan Barry
