Palm Sunday 2014

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

That is the collect for Palm Sunday morning prayer.  Breezing by it we miss important nuggets of paschal truth.  Read and reflected upon contemplatively can aid us in understanding some of the most important aspects of Holy Week.

First, we enter Holy Week, today, Palm Sunday, with an understanding and appreciation of the fact that God is "Almighty."  He is in control of the universe and nothing, no matter how tragic--including the crucifixion of his son--is beyond redemption.  Nothing, despite all appearances, is beyond his reach.  After death, physically or metaphorically, there is Easter.  Ressurection.  Knowing this, accepting our own suffering can become easier.

Secondly, because of this confidence we can approach difficulties with the same humility and acceptance that Jesus demonstrated.  "...giving us the example of his great humility."  It takes a good amount of egocentricity to immediately want to rid ourselves of all difficulty.  Who wants to suffer?  But suffering is not without purpose and if we enter into our suffering with humility seeking God's will rather than our own, then, we can "let go and let God."  That can be a tall order.  That is why we, after all, pray.  Humility is a gift of the Spirit and so we need to always ask for an increase of it.

Finally, we pray that God would help us that we may walk in the way of Jesus's suffering.  We're going to hear a lot about that suffering this week. And if we listen attentively--every step of the way to Easter--we will see and learn precisely how Christ approached suffering so that we might "be imitators of him."   Meditations on the stations of the cross this week might be helpful to imagine and reimagine our own responses to suffering.