FATHER MICHAEL’S DIARY
22 MARCH 2024
WOT? NO DONKEY?
Several advertisements have appeared recently for Palm Sunday processions led by donkeys. This is a concerning development and to see why we need to look at the purpose of the distinctive Holy Week services.
Holy Week is a testing time for all involved in the church’s liturgy. It involves several complicated services which include ceremonies which are only performed once at this time of year, ceremonies which it is important to get right. This involves a big effort on all who take part. The purpose of all this is to make present the momentous events of this very special week. “Making present” is not the same as re-enacting - as happens in a Passion Play, including the great spectacle at Oberammergau. With a Passion Play the audience are spectators – they watch what happens to those involved in the events portrayed on stage. That may affect them deeply, indeed the ancient Greeks saw the purpose of drama as catharsis, as enabling members of the audience to confront their fears and be released from them. The Holy Week liturgies are not like that: their purpose is to make the events of this week present in such a way that we experience them as present events in which we take part. They seek to achieve this in a number of ways, dramatic portrayal, as in the reading of the passion gospels; symbolic action, for instance the Maundy Thursday feet washing; and ceremonies which reflect, but do not portray, the events concerned, such as the ceremonies of the Easter Liturgy.
So, no donkeys on Palm Sunday. The Palm Sunday procession is not a re-enactment of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, for which a donkey might be appropriate, rather its intended to make us feel what it would have been like to have been there that day on the Mount of Olives. As G K Chesterson’s poem “The Donkey” puts it;
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
So we should approach the distinctive liturgies of this week seeking to bring them into our lives as present realities, to be lived through now in March 2024, and to allow them to affect our lives accordingly. We should not be same people on 1 April as we are today.
READINGS AND PRAYERS
24 MARCH – PALM SUNDAY – Mark 11.1-11 – the triumphal entry – that we may walk with Jesus throughout this momentous week
25 MARCH – FIG MONDAY – Isaiah 42.1-9 – I have given you as a covenant to the people – that inspired by the events of this week we may become fruitful disciples of our Lord
26 MARCH – TEMPLE TUESDAY – John 12.20-36 – if a grain of wheat dies it bears much
fruit – for all taking part in the special liturgies of this week -
27 MARCH – SPY WEDNESDAY – Hebrews 12.1-3 – since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses – those preparing for Baptism and Confirmation
28 MARCH – MAUNDY THURSDAY – John 13.1-17, 31b-35 – all ministers of the Gospel
29 MARCH – GOOD FRIDAY – Isaiah 52.13-53.12 –He poured himself out to death – for the grace of a good death
30 MARCH – HOLY SATURDAY – Lamentations 3.1-9, 19-24 – the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases - all who mourn