The Buds A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE Rev. Fr. K M George
- In traditional Christian Churches in Kerala children show great enthusiasm in collecting an array of flowers and colourful leaves of plants to bring to church on Palm Sunday. They enjoy throwing up flowers in playful delight during the special service of Hosanna. The day is also marked by the beautiful sight of the tender leaves of coconut trees (kuruthola) blessed during the service and carried by all the faithful.
The Malankara Orthodox Church, according to its new lectionary, celebrates Palm Sunday also as the day of children.
Jesus rejoiced in the singing of Hosannas by children during his entry to Jerusalem. It was the fulfilment of a great Messianic prophecy (Psalm 8:2).
"But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David', they became indignant , and said to Him, 'Do you hear what these children are saying?'. And Jesus said to them, 'Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself?'"
(Matthew 21:15-16)
The close connection between the small children on the one hand and the sprouting seedlings and buds on the other is obvious. Both represent the budding life. Both hold promises for the future and life's fruitfulness. Both witness to the hope of new life and the new order of the world to be brought about by the Messiah. Both have a certain transparency and loveliness of innocence that attract discerning people of good will.
It may seem paradoxical that a radically new vision for the world and for a new order of life sprouts in the most unlikely place, namely the desert. All the biblical heroes that we celebrate in the Lenten prayers had something to do with the desert or desert-like situations hostile to life. The dreary desert of the great Lent can become the fertile seed-bed for the budding life.
- In traditional Christian Churches in Kerala children show great enthusiasm in collecting an array of flowers and colourful leaves of plants to bring to church on Palm Sunday. They enjoy throwing up flowers in playful delight during the special service of Hosanna. The day is also marked by the beautiful sight of the tender leaves of coconut trees (kuruthola) blessed during the service and carried by all the faithful.
"But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, 'Hosanna to the Son of David', they became indignant , and said to Him, 'Do you hear what these children are saying?'. And Jesus said to them, 'Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself?'"
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