Palm Sunday is a celebration of the day Jesus went into Jerusalem to celebrate the passover. His followers – those who espoused his message of love, peace and social justice – turned it into a procession with him dressed and treated like a king being fanned with palm branches. Later in the week they will turn against him to protect their own lives when he is arrested and executed.
Today is perhaps the strangest Palm Sunday any Christian has ever experienced. There is no mass to go to. There are no gatherings on street corners and in parking lots to process together into churches. There is no priest in a red robe or very long reading of the passion Gospel. Today is a Palm Sunday of private reflection rather than communal action.
The questions of the day remain. What do you find yourself drawn to honoring and espousing today? Does Jesus’s ultimate message of loving God with all of your heart, mind and soul and loving your neighbor as yourself make you want to join a parade with like believers?
For meditation today:
- Find a comfortable position.
- Notice your breath. Begin to lengthen the exhales and inhales, engaging the diaphragm as previously taught.
- Do a body scan, beginning at the top of your head and going all the way down to your toes. Relax each muscle and body part as you go. It may take a few minutes or many.
- As you scan, notice any places holding particular emotions. Allow yourself to notice the emotions without judgement.
- If you celebrate Holy Week, are there any feelings about this year being so different from years past? Disappointment? Relief that an obligation you don’t like has been lifted? Guilt that you feel relief? Excitement to try something new?
- If you do not celebrate Holy Week, are there any feelings about the people who do? About your past history with Christianity?
- Are there general emotions around this social distancing experience that you have yet to acknowledge?
- You may wish to envision a grounding cord so that as you uncover these emotions and allow yourself to feel and learn from them, you can easily direct everything down to the center of the Earth as you finish with it.
- Once you have completed the body scan exercise, your attention slowly shifts to the question of your beliefs.
- What am I drawn to honor and espouse right now?
- What do I love with all of my heart, mind and soul?
- Do I love my neighbor as myself?
- Sit with any answers that come without judgement, just love for yourself, your experience and your honesty.