so it begins

Lent is in its death throes. We have reached the pinnacle of our liturgical year - Holy Week.

If Lent has been hard - good. It should be. For nearly forty days now, we have sought to surrender to the self, our egos, and our wants. Our rallying cry has been, 'Not I, but CHRIST.' And on this Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, the palms have been laid out upon the road in front of us, helping to guide our final pathway down the most poignant stretch of our Lenten journey.

"As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, 'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here.' They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, 'What are you doing, untying the colt?' They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:

Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord;
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!

 

Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late."

 

The Triumphal Entry is a brief reprieve from the hardships of Lent and the impending darkness of the week ahead. Not only do we now get the selfless sacrifices of Lent that we are carrying but now, beginning with Palm Sunday, we are called to empty ourselves even more to be completely ready to experience Easter in all its glory, power, and awesomeness. Why? Because Paul says so: "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

 

So if you think you can't empty yourself out any more this Lent, if you think the festivities give you pause to re-indulge in your pre-Lenten ways, if you think that you'll have nothing left of yourself if you empty one single drop more - forget it all and push to Easter. Jesus Christ, the God of the Universe, stands ready in front of an open tomb to grab you up and fill your empty self up with His love. Our Lenten journey begins with solemnity. Our Holy Week begins with joy and happiness - but yet, we know what will transpire between Sunday and Friday. We press on in the beginning of this final stretch to Easter on fumes. But we end being filled with life.

 

Never be so happy to be so close to an empty gas tank as during Holy Week.