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Today’s palm branch procession, and reading of the passion of Jesus signals our move into Holy Week.

It is helpful to see these days before Easter as a week of retreat. While we continue our family and work routines, our focus is guided beyond. You might find it helpful to listen to a recording of the Passion according to Mark. There are many online but here is one option at this link.

With children you might like to watch together a five minute animation at this link.

In these days let us look together to Jesus.

We remember the last days of his life: suffering unjustly and death as a criminal. We recall these events that gave us new life.

When we think of something that happened a long time ago – especially when it happened before we were born, it is easy to slip into nostalgia about the past. In this mode we remember what has happened, knowing that it has already happened.

It is over.

While this mode of memory can help us to learn from the mistakes and methods of the past, but this is not the kind of remembering the church calls us to in Holy Week.

In a Palm Sunday homily a few years ago Pope Benedict reminds us that “following Christ demands as a first step the reawakening of the nostalgia for being authentically human and thus the reawakening for God”.

This is not a simple recalling of a past event, but a present re-membering (that is, giving body to) the past reality that is really a present event and a living experience today.

Perhaps it is helpful to consider an example.

From history many of us have learned of the Battle of Waterloo. We know that this event happened. We have no doubt since our knowledge has come to us from many independent sources. There is no doubt that for the families of the (almost) fifty thousand soldiers that died, this event was unforgettable.

Now, for the descendants of these families, to have an uncle who died in the fighting has become a badge of family honour.

But the death of Jesus is not such an ‘historical’ memory for the disciple.

The difference is that whereas Napoleon and his soldiers are now dead, Jesus is alive. The blood on the battlefields of Belgium is no longer visible. But the suffering of Jesus continues.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are not simply moments of history. These events are the present reality of the life of the twenty-first century disciple. We suffer,. We are misunderstood. At times we are abandoned and even betrayed by friends, and we die. Yet, in the midst of all these sufferings Jesus is to be found alive and present.

Napoleon is dead and gone. The community of Jesus is alive and thriving today, not because of our successful pastoral plans, but because Jesus is alive.

As we walk this journey together we do so not as passive spectators or students of history. Instead we journey this path as struggling Christians sharing intimately the suffering and death of Jesus.

We know the promise too, that those who walk this path, and who live this life confident in the personal presence and activity of God, will share in the glory of the resurrection.

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If you missed yesterday’s update on my Sabbatical you can catch up at this link.

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Take an initiative and initiate a cafe gathering, or join these gatherings:

Monday 25 March 2024 10.00am (& every Monday). Moku Cafe. Bush Inn Centre, Waimairi Road,  Christchurch. Trish

Thursday 11 April 2024 10.00am (put the date in your diary) Stumble Inn, 200 Mangorei Road, New Plymouth. Joan

Email me to add another: john@fff.org.nz

After your gathering send a sentence or two about the encounter.