To take this road with Jesus (Cecilia González-Andrieu)

   Once a year, we are brought into Lent’s relentless reminder of fragility and our dependence on God and each other. According to the Scriptures, Jesus intentionally walks away from all he knew. He begins a process of shedding the comforts that could dull his senses from seeing deeply into God’s heart, or worse tempt him to look away from the pain crying out to God, coopted by the promises of power. Only against the starkness of his meeting this reality does Jesus’ insistence to endanger his life by going to Jerusalem for Passover make any sense. The reality of his community is there in lives crushed by conspiring powers. He cannot walk away from the offenses against God’s desire of radical love, so he must transcend the paralysis that could overtake him and his friends in the face of Rome’s brutality and the collusion of the powerful who rely on Rome to prop them up. 

   The extreme contradiction of his situation is captured in his entry into Jerusalem, where we note the symbolic power of the Mount of Olives. This hill of olive trees beyond the city walls from which Jerusalem comes into view, is both the site of the promise of God’s Reign as he arrives and the site of its most destructive betrayal as he is arrested. The reality is that it is both at once and this is where Jesus transcends the fear that could stop him, a moment that clarifies for him that violence can no longer be viewed as the answer to conflicts. 

   And so – we are called out of ourselves to take this road with Jesus – to take up the gift of the reign of God we are called to bring, while knowing that there will be murderous opposition to that gift. As we step out of our comfort into the starkness of what is real, we transcend fear to see clearly that we must continue on to Jerusalem because that is where change happens. 

--Cecilia González-Andrieu 

Image source: Giotto, Entry into Jerusalem (14th century), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumphal_entry_into_Jerusalem#/media/File:Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-26-_-_Entry_into_Jerusalem2.jpg 

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