Palm Sunday 2012

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040112.cfm

The Harrowing of Hell

All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee.

Palm Sunday may be the most peculiar Sunday of the liturgical year. We begin the feast with joy at Jesus’ entering Jerusalem, and immediately plunge into the sadness of his death. We hear him declare our faith will be shaken and we will scatter like frightened sheep; and we swear with Peter we will remain with him. We declare our love for him by crying out with the hysterical mobs, “Crucify him; crucify him!” 

Is this first day of Holy Week joyous or sad, terrifying or reassuring? Yes. It is all that and more. It is and should be a harrowing experience:

harrow (noun) 1. an agricultural implement with spike-like teeth or upright disks, drawn chiefly over plowed land to level it, break up clods, root up weeds, etc.

verb (used with object) 2. to draw a harrow over (land).3. to disturb keenly or painfully; distress the mind, feelings, etc., of.

Note: The "Harrowing of Hell" occurred on Holy Saturday when Jesus descended into Hell, invading Satan’s stronghold, and snatching his Elect from there. There are many wonderful paintings of this incident. They usually portray Jesus taking Adam and Eve by the hand, as in the icon above.

By harrowing I do not mean Palm Sunday should be a traumatic emotional experience. We Catholics don't usually strive for an emotional experience of the mysteries. This, rather, is a spiritual experience. But what is that?


The Greeks in their tragedies sought catharsis. When they attended Oedipus Rex or Medea they witnessed the hubris of the heroes, heard their anguish and saw their catastrophic death. The playgoer experienced an emotional/intellectual elation. The play probed the very depths of human experience, its ambition and its futility; and the playgoer felt both wrung out and refreshed by the spectacle. Shakespeare's tragedies and American blues offer that same catharsis. 


The Christian's experience of Holy Week is not catharsis. Rather, we await harrowing. Following Jesus from Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil and Easter Sunday we feel enormous sadness that our friend, brother, champion and savior must suffer an agonizing, humiliating death. 


Because Jesus is so dear to us we might beg him not to go to Jerusalem. And yet we must beg him to be arrested, tried, convicted, tortured and murdered. We witness his agony in Gethsemane; we see his knees buckle as he falls to his face in terror. We hear his thrice-repeated prayer, "Let this cup pass from me." We fear for his safety as the enemy approaches; and we fear he might flee into the night. This is harrowing! 


Harrowing is what a farmer does to his fields. He drags steel-sharp discs through the dirt, uprooting weeds and breaking sun-baked clods of dirt. Jesus harrows us with his cross, as he uproots our sins, levels our caste systems and breaks our hardened hearts. 


He dies in agony because we have sinned against the God who loves us with infinitely generous love. But, with Easter, we also celebrate his Victory: first, because he has won it for us; and, secondly, because He has proven himself the conqueror of sin and death. We are glad for him! 


The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is more than an emotional tear-jerker; it is more than catharsis; it is a harrowing experience by which we are set free from our selves. Praying with Jesus through this week Christians not only celebrate his forgiving our sins. As we celebrate his victory we thank God he has led us through the narrow gate of self-forgetting to the radical freedom of God's children.