Palm Sunday, 2022. I went to church, and I recall thinking that it was very emotional. I remember one moment during Holy Communion, and I got a picture in my mind of the crown of thorns. Jesus pierced with the crown of thorns. I have said before that it seems as though Jesus likes to look right at me, with the same intensity and the same love that he had for Peter, when Peter had denied him three times. The compassion that cuts you to the very heart. In some real sense, I am not Peter. But if Jesus can look upon me with compassion, in a way similar to what he did with Peter, I have no right to deny Him, to tell him that his mercy is no good here.
We don't recognize the more subtle form of pride, which fears the judgment of God. That is what it is, if in fact we have believed, and we are courageous enough to accuse ourselves before his tribunal of mercy. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
But that is the great tragedy of life, when people cannot accept mercy and grace, offered at the price of Christ's own blood. When we look at it this way, we take a slightly dimmer view of the idea that we must do something, other than accept what God has already offered.
As we go into the holiest week of the year, let us recognize the nearness of Christ, and not dwell upon the sins which have dragged us down in the past. He loves us, and not theoretically, or abstractly. The only challenge for us is to agree with his love, and to make ourselves available to his love by responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
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