A Song of Entry
“God is the Lord, who has shown us light; bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.”
This is a fairly recent (ca 2002) depiction of Jesus’s Triumphal Entry from the Bulgairan artist Julia Stankova. In many respects — the color, the composition; the shape of the buildings, the characters and the rocks; even some of the marks of age — this looks like a traditional icon. Yet the image is oddly distorted: bent, as though warped by a funhouse mirror. The Holy One, coming to his people enthroned on a donkey, takes on an alien appearance: his peaceful and luminous features distorted. But perhaps, it is not he who is distorted, but the earth — its curvature here compressed, and his properly-proportioned figure is there beyond our comprehension. Perhaps it is that he is not only too divine, but too human for us to receive him.
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
— Matthew 21:10
Palm Sunday
Texts for Today
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
ლოცვა - Galoba (The Prayer)
The vivacious Georgian folk group Trio Mandili perform a (relatively) recent poem by the 19th C Georgian nationalist Ilia Chavchavadze. Although performed in a church and in the style of liturgical music with which the trio would be familiar, this is actually very much a paraliturgical piece. Romantic and nationalistic themes lie behind the poets expression … and the performance of his piece, which is offered on behalf of the victims and those who continue to suffer in the war presently being inflicted on Ukraine and its people. But drawing these affections into the grammar of faith is important: we are reminded that the drama we celebrate as Christ comes to Jerusalem and there is crushed by the machinations of his age that what we celebrate in our faith does not altogether transcend history, but it is its secret meaning and fulfillment. The Christ who entered once into Jerusalem in history enters still into a world that both rejoices and rejects him: and we are caught up in the terror and the drama and the mystery of this Act.
Here are the words of the poem, in translation:
With tenderness I stand before thee on my knees;
I ask for neither wealth nor glory;
I won't debase my holy prayer with earthly matters.
I would wish for my soul to rest in heaven,
My heart to be radiant with love heralded by thee,
Even if they pierce me in the heart:
“Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do!"
