Today’s find: Glory, fading

At last arrives the time for a personal “hosana” or two. Fortunately, it comes with a lesson.

Regular readers may recall me celebrating the fact that my teammates and I notched a win in the St. Joe Golf League last fall. And with the championship comes the opportunity for each member of the team to cradle our “traveling trophy” for a time.

As noted above, my time has now come, even as Holy Week begins. This is sweet timing, in my view, because our house will be brimming with Easter guests next Sunday – more folks around (in other words) to catch a glimpse of Golf League glory.

But it’s an odd sort of glory I’ve noticed: Literally, a fading glory for the champs of the 2007 season, their names waning on the placard that sits right next to the one commemorating our win last fall. A twinkling of fame, now nearly erased by the passage of time.

I couldn’t help being struck by the liturgical coincidence – this “Palm Sunday” encounter with the inconstancy of life. Human praise is nice while it lasts. But turn your head for a moment, and it’s gone.

We all know the Palm Sunday story: Jesus rides triumphant into Jerusalem as Holy Week begins, only to be hoisted high upon the cross by week’s end. 

We gaze upon the cross, and it takes our breath away. The very breath that shouted “hosana” now proves entirely inadequate for so much of life. The brokenness, the suffering, the heartbreak, the sinfulness – all conspiring to steal away our peace and mock any moment of glory we may have once experienced. 

But we gaze upon the cross, and we see something better than an earthly crown.

We see God, not clinging to Godliness … but emptying himself. We see God, willing to enter into our woundedness. We see God, arms outstretched in a bleeding embrace to offer us redemption.

And with our fleeting fading breath, we plead, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.

IHS