Today begins the commemoration of the greatest events in human history. Indeed, the greatest events in the universe- when the Lord of creation made Himself vulnerable to evil in order to save as many souls as would turn to Him.<\/p>\n
Sin was a discordant note in the song of creation and it would seem that the only way to make sense of it would be to use it as the first note of a new composition, the song of redemption. On this day, Palm Sunday, I am reminded of the image of Our Blessed Saviour entering Jerusalem on the back of an ass! Can you imagine the King of Kings humbling Himself to such an extent? Not for Him the stately white stallion or a handsome litter borne by slaves. No, He became a slave and rode on the back of a new donkey, one that had never been ridden.<\/p>\n
What does a slave do? A slave does things no one else wants to do. Dirty, messy, onerous, difficult tasks. This is what Our Lord did for us. He lived the life we can not live and He died the death we can not die. Our Brother becomes our slave. <\/p>\n
Read the words of the great poem of the donkey by G.K. Chesterton…<\/p>\n
When fishes flew and forests walked,
\nAnd figs grew upon thorn.
\nSome moment when the moon was blood,
\nthen surely I was born!<\/p>\n
With monstrous head and sickening cry,
\nand ears like errant wings;
\nThe devil’s walking parody
\nof all four-footed things.<\/p>\n
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
\nOf ancient, crooked will;
\nStarve, scourge, deride me!: I am dumb,
\nI keep my secret still…<\/p>\n
Fools! Far off wise and proud- I also had my hour;
\nOne far fierce hours and sweet:
\nWhen there were shouts about my ears,
\nand palms beneath my feet!<\/p>\n
One last thought… Our Lord borrowed the little donkey. “Tell them the Lord has need of it.”- and the Lord promises to return it. He will never take anything from you that He does not return with greater worth. “Pressed down, shaken together and overflowing,” He will give back more than He ever takes. He does not want golden vessels. He does not want silver vessels. He wants YIELDED vessels.<\/p>\n
O Lord, help me to yield myself to You. Open my heart with Your dolorous passion and fill me with all good things. Keep me mindful of Your great love and of the needs of others. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today begins the commemoration of the greatest events in human history. Indeed, the greatest events in the universe- when the Lord of creation made Himself vulnerable to evil in order to save as many souls as would turn to Him. Sin was a discordant note in the song of creation and it would seem that the only way to make… (more…)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[228,227,161],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-fools-far","tag-palm-sunday","tag-yielded"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiestanthony.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}