By Phillip Bass
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Normally, I get excited about the start of Holy Week. Each Palm Sunday we get to hear the familiar stories of Jesus’ final days leading to the cross and to the celebration of the Resurrection. In non-Covid times, we celebrate with the waving of palms and shouts of “Hosanna.” Over the years, I have come to appreciate the emotional high and celebration of Palm Sunday, as it has balanced the grief and emotional anguish of the coming days. Throughout Holy Week, I often experience a sense of loss, shame, and guilt. And, as we have culturally been trained to do, I want to know what I can do about it. How can I make up for what I have done? How can I make it better?
This year, as we near the end of our Lenten journey and head into Holy Week, are you ready to shout “Hosanna”? Are you ready to wave your palms in the air and celebrate Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem? I don’t know about you, but this year, I’m feeling too tired. I’m not sure I have any celebration left in me. I’ve hit the Covid wall, crashed through it, and now feel as though I’m under a pile of emotional rubble. This past year has simply been one long Lenten journey and I’m ready to rest. It has been a year of keeping people at least six feet away, without hugging, without sharing meals, and exhaustingly having to learn new ways of being. It has been a year of lamenting death, isolation, and systemic injustice. It has been a year of looking at who we are as a community, a nation, and a Church. And, I am tired.
How can I shout “Hosanna” and celebrate after a year like this? And, what if I just don’t feel like celebrating? What if I simply do not have the energy for it? If you are feeling as exhausted as I am, let me assure you that it is ok. Jesus tells us that in our silence, even the stones will shout out. Even our Covid-hardened hearts cannot stop the celebration of Jesus’s march towards the cross and onward towards the empty tomb of the Resurrection. When we do not have the emotional energy and when we are too worn down, Creation itself will shout “Hosanna”. Simply put, we don’t have to do anything other than have faith in the promise of the Resurrection.
I’ve looked around this past week and taken in the beauty of daffodils, hyacinths, forsythia, and pear trees in bloom. I’ve walked around my yard and noticed new growth on plants that I’ve inherited from the saints of my family. I’ve witnessed Creation crying out “Hosanna” in brighter colors and in warmer and longer days. In a year of death, isolation and exhaustion, new life is beginning to emerge. God has once again reaffirmed the newness of life through the goodness of Creation. And, somewhere, deep within my grief and exhaustion, I feel my heart crying out “Hosanna.”
Perhaps this Palm Sunday, some of us will be more spectators than party-goers. Some may have the energy to wave their palms with the exuberance of one sensing the nearness of Christ. However it is for you, know that it is ok. There is nothing you “have to do” for Holy Week. God doesn’t require you to wave palms or to celebrate. When you can’t, Creation will. God simply asks that you have faith in the life, death, and Resurrection of the cross. Simply stated, the “doing” of Easter has already been completed by Christ! This year, if you need to rest, it is ok. Whatever the coming Holy Week looks like for you, I invite you to look around and witness the “Hosannas” all around you. Creation is proclaiming the coming of Easter and we are welcomed to rest in the promise of the Resurrection as we near the end of our long Lenten journey.