It's Palm Sunday. Once again I am struck by how different San Pedro, where the men and I live, is from Antigua. Nothing is more striking than the differences I see during Holy Week. The activities in San Pedro grow out of faith, while those in Antigua seem to come from a delight in pagentry.
Yes, we have processions. In fact, they pass in front of both my house and Casa de Esperanza. But they are strikingly different from those I have seen, and come to dread, in Antigua. (I just realized that, since I moved to San Pedro, this is the first year we are freely remembering Holy Week. Activities in the three previous years had by greatly limited by Covid. Perhaps that is why they have struck me so deeply this year.)
These processions are not done for tourists--we have none.
The alfombras (carpets make of sawdust and other vegetation remembering the palms Jesus rode over entering Jerusalem) are so much simpler, mostly done by families in the early hours of the morning.They are not done for show, as most participate, rather than watching like I do.
The participants, for the most part, are my neighbors, not adorned in purple robes (though some are) but mostly in street clothes. The leaders of the processions belong to confraternities (parachurch organizations), and some do contribute for the privilege of participating, but it is not a requirement here. The only requirement is the desire to honor the sacrifice of Jesus.
While it is true that some believe they are doing penance, paying for their sins, by carring the andas ("floats") with statues, many I have spoken to participate in gratitude for the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Publically proclaiming that they want to follow him.
While doctrinal differences divide the Catholics and Evangelicals here, I think we have much to learn from each other.
The Catholics can teach us much about the price paid to repair our broken relationship with God.
I fear that too often we have made salvation dependent on nothing more than saying a prayer. I see this with mission teams that lead folks in a sinners prayer, but do nothing more to teach them about the Jesus they have supposedly asked "into their heart". Little, if anything, is done to assure that they have had a change of heart, not just said some words. Most times, nothing is done to teach them to follow Jesus. Too often they are converted but never discipled.
As Evangelical, I am concerned that inadvertently we have, in many ways cheapened the sacrifice of Jesus, by focusing on OUR individual salvation, when in reality it isn't about us at all. It's about our willingness to be disciples and live as he did, not about what doctrine we follow or dogmas we cling to. It is not just about our "eternal security" of going to heaven, but about the charge which Jesus left us to make the Kingdom of Heaven become a reality here on earth, as was God's intention in creation.
Even the andas carrying Mary do not offend me as they once did. (BTW, here in San Pedro, Mary follows Jesus, and the "float" is much smaller and the processional simpler.) These portrayals of Mary always focus on her sorrow as she watched Jesus suffer and die for us. It reminds us of her faithful presence with him. Seeing this can provoke our own sorrow in recognizing the price paid to reconcile us to God. Too often, I fear, we pass over Good Friday in our hurry to get to Resurrection Sunday.
So I ask you this year, as we prepare to celebrate the greatest "overcoming" of all time in the Resurrection, to take time this week to focus on the events leading up to it. Learn from Mary to take some time so "stay with" Jesus, to watch and pray with him, as he asked the disciples to be with him in Gethsemane. Open our hearts to feel his struggle, as a man, as he faced his impending death. To repent from all the ways in which we do not faithfully follow him, maybe even run from him, that created the need for his death. To appreciate what it cost Jesus to reunite us with God. Then we will truly be able to experience the joy of the Resurrection.
