Palm Suday

A blessed Palm Sunday to you all!

Today marks the end of Great Lent. Tomorrow marks the beginning of Holy Week.

I finally received Communion again today; twice, no less (because of the crowds, our church offers two Liturgies today; we arrived at the end of the first one, received, and then, since my mother "didn't feel like she'd really been to church" we stayed for the second Liturgy).

Reflecting on how easily we abandon the all-encompassing joy the Precious Body and Blood of Christ affords is sobering. I snapped at my mother on the drive back home, the result of a foolish argument (which centered on how long it takes to warm a frozen bagel; don't ask).

I prayed fervently in church, hoping to not squander the blessing of the Sacrament as easily as I normally do. Receiving a second time was an added bonus--it was much more joyous than the first, as the first Communion had done its part to remit my sins and further prepare me for the second. And yet, despite being very aware of Christ's Salvific Power, I was distracted by a bagel.

Those who pray re-enact Palm Sunday each and every day, it seems to me. We achieve these brief and joyous moments of great insight and communion. Hossanah in the highest! We can't imagine even wanting to sin, as we know nothing can top the experience offered by prayer, fasting, and the Sacraments.

Yet sure enough, we throw it away for whatever bagel captures our attention. How quick we are to forget the man we know is God. How good He is to have offered us the Sacraments to raise us up each and every time we fall, Sacraments that repeat the suffering of that betrayal some two millennia ago.