Lent: Week Six

 Sr. Barbara McMullen, a Congregational Leader

Today is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.  In the readings

For today we have a real contrast.  We see Jesus riding into Jerusalem with a big celebration.  The people are shouting “Hosanna” and putting palm branches before him.  Of course, in hindsight we know that this celebration will not last.  Later on the people will reject him and call for his crucifixion.

Perhaps the contrast is to teach us, as in the Philippians reading, that vulnerability and emptying ourselves is a good thing.  Jesus modeled that very stance for us.  Jesus was willing to enter the messiness of our lives and our wounded world…to show us that humility, not power and wealth, will set us on the path of deeper relationships with God and with others.

Today’s readings call us to let go of all that we hang on to in this life, and to empty ourselves so as to be in communion and solidarity with God and others.  May we accept this invitation