The tamed ass of Palm Sunday

Today I led a workshop for the catechists in Zone 4 of the parish. I do like this zone a lot because there are many catechists who have caught our vision of participative catechesis, that helps the children and youth encounter Christ – and not just memorize “facts” about the faith.

I decided to spend part of the time on helping the catechists develop new ways to use the Bible in their classes. I was in for a surprise – and a lesson.

I decided to use the Gospel accounts of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in a communal Ignatian contemplation approach, promoting the use of the imagination. Before we started I explained the use of our senses in imaginatively encountering Christ in the Gospels.

I read three accounts of the events of Palm Sunday, starting with Luke 19: 29-40, followed by Mark and Matthew – leaving time between the readings for prayer and imaginative contemplation. After the last period of silence, I invited them to share what it meant to them in groups of two or three. Then I opened up the prayer to sharing in the group.

Two young men had noted something that I had barely noticed. In Luke’s Gospel, the disciples are told they will find a donkey, a filly, a young ass – πῶλον, “on which no one has ever sat.”

They told me how they were first afraid – as Jesus was about to mount the donkey. If no one has ever mounted a donkey, the donkey will be very frisky and will try to throw the person off. It needs to be broken in before one can safely ride it. It is dangerous to try to ride on a donkey on which no one has ever sat. You need to get someone to break in the burro before you can ride it or use it to carry burdens.

They found themselves afraid for Jesus.

But then Jesus mounted the donkey and it was as gentle as could be – even carrying him over palms and mantles, in the midst of a noisy crowd, crying out “Hosanna!”

They were amazed.

I was amazed at this incredible insight that most of us who read the scriptures never notice. Jesus rides on a donkey that has not been broken in. In fact, in his gentleness he tames the beast.

Later I spoke with the two men and we reflected that in the Garden of Eden the animals were tame. But when sin comes into the world, we have situations in which donkeys will try to unseat anyone who tries to sit on them. But Jesus, restoring creation to its state of peace before the fall, can sit on this beast that has become tame.

Jesus tames us with his gentleness. He restores peace with his presence.

Later in the workshop I had the catechists break into three groups and work on the Palm Sunday story in three ways – drawings, retelling the story in their own words, and drama.

I ended up making an ass of myself in the drama!

Significantly I ended the workshop with Matthew 11: 25-30 that begins with this verse:

I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, but revealed them to the simple people.

Am I graced!

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This was first posted to my blog of reflections, Walk the Way, but I think it deserves a wider readership. 

Installed lector

I have been a lector at Mass for many years, privileged to read the Word of God so that others may hear and respond.

Yesterday morning I was installed as a lector by our bishop, Monseñor Darwin Andino, in a short ritual in the village of Montaña Adentro, where the bishop had gone to confirm more than sixty people – which included two elderly women.

The bishop had originally wanted to have the ritual at the afternoon Mass in the main parish church in Dulce Nombre, but both Padre German, our pastor, and I persuaded the bishop at the last moment – almost literally. I am so glad that it happened there.

I think it is significant that this happened among the poor, in a church on a mountainside.

There are two other reasons I think the place was appropriate. Several years ago a group of students from St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames came and helped with the foundations of the Montaña Adentro church.

Also, in the past few years Montaña Adentro has experienced the killing of four members of its small community.

So here I was, before the bishop, to be installed as an “official” lector.

What does that mean?

In 1972 when Pope Paul VI changed the four “minor orders” for two ministries: lector and acolyte, he wrote, in the Apostolic Letter Ministeria Quaedam:

The reader is appointed for a function proper to him, that of reading the word of God in the liturgical assembly. Accordingly, he is to proclaim the readings from sacred Scripture, except for the gospel in the Mass and other sacred celebrations; he is to recite the psalm between the readings when there is no psalmist; he is to present the intentions for the general intercessions in the absence of a deacon or cantor; he is to direct the singing and the participation by the faithful; he is to instruct the faithful for the worthy reception of the sacraments. He may also, insofar as may be necessary, take care of preparing other faithful who are appointed on a temporary basis to read the Scriptures in liturgical celebrations. That he may more fittingly and perfectly fulfill these functions, he is to meditate assiduously on sacred Scripture.
Aware of the office he has undertaken, the reader is to make every effort and employ suitable means to acquire that increasingly warm and living love and knowledge of Scripture that will make him a more perfect disciple of the Lord.

Here in Honduras I have not been reading as much as I did in the United States. In most ways, it’s more appropriate that native speakers read the scriptures.

But more recently I have been trying to help them read the scriptures better. Many of the people I work with have very little formal education and so reading publicly can be quite a challenge. Thus it is important for an “installed” lector to help them become better proclaimers of the Word of God which many of them are practicing better than I am.

But the real challenge of the lectorate is to meditate more on scripture, to acquire an “increasingly warm and living love and knowledge” of the Word of God, to become a better disciple of the Lord.

In the service in Montaña Adentro, the bishop read the recommended remarks from the ritual, which included several admonitions to the lector, or, as he is called, “the messenger of the Word of God.”

You will proclaim the Word of God in the liturgical assembly; you will educate children and adults in the faith and prepare them to receive the sacraments; you will announce the message of salvation to those who do not know it.
In this was and with your cooperation, all will be able to attain an understanding of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, sent be him, and they will be able to attain eternal salvation.
When you announce to others the Word of God, be docile to the Holy Spirit and receiving that Word, meditate on it with diligence in order that you may progressively acquire the soft and living affection [suave y vivo afecto] for the divine Word and that your life way give witness to our Savior Jesus Christ.

After a prayer the bishop handed me a Bible with these words:

Receive the book of the Sacred Scripture
and faithfully hand on the Word of God
that it may be more alive and effective
in the hearts of men [and women].

Reading scripture, mostly the psalms of the Liturgy of Hours each day and the daily readings from the lectionary, has been an important part of my life for many years. But perhaps what I really need to do is to read it, to study it, to pray it with more dedication in the coming year.

My ministry in the Dulce Nombre will help this since we will dedicate the year of studying the Bible for pastoral workers.

But above, it will mean trying not to rush through the psalms and the daily readings, trying to read them prayerfully – and in light of the signs of the times, so that I may better serve the people here.

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More confirmation photos can be found here.