“Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches …crying out: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:8-9)
“And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.” (Mark 14:20)
Two roads. The first, covered with branches and cloaks with a crowd shouting blessings; the other, scarred by rocks, strewn with blood, sweat and teeming with hate.
I will go out on a limb and say most of us prefer the Jerusalem route. We’d like a life paved smooth by our plans, without rocks causing us to stumble or alter our route. Maybe this sounds familiar: school, perhaps post-graduate studies, a fulfilling job, marriage and, after a sufficient time children, then onwards to blissful retirement.
But what if God’s plan takes you on a different path? What if He is calling you to a different challenge? What if He wants more from you so that you can give more to others? Perhaps the job isn’t really everything; perhaps the family you longed for arrives in unexpected ways; perhaps God asks you to sacrifice all to serve His people. Perhaps He calls you to a love you thought you were incapable of giving. How do you move forward?
By letting Him enter your life, through the grace of the Sacraments and the love of community. The Eucharist is more than a sliver of bread; Confession is more than just words spoken in confidence. Our neighbors are more than people on our street. Christ enters into our lives through each and the more we partake of them, the more we feel His presence.
It is this presence which travels with us. Jerusalem and Golgotha are not really two separate roads, but stops along the way leading us to our Father. It is Christ’s grace which gives us direction; His grace which loosens the knots that bind us; and His grace, as the song goes, “will lead us home.”
~Fr. Posey