St. Josemaría Escrivá had a great affection for donkeys. For him, these simple, hard-working animals expressed in many ways the spirituality that God had called him to proclaim to the world: that we can and should encounter God through our ordinary, everyday life. He was especially fond of the figure of the donkey on the Ferris wheel. As he wrote in his spiritual classic Camino: "Blessed perseverance of the ferris wheel donkey! Always at the same pace. Always the same turns. One day and the next: all the same. Without that, there would be no ripeness in the fruits, no lushness in the orchard, no fragrance in the garden. Take this thought to your inner life" (Road, 998).
A donkey works, endures the load and the blows, is content with a little straw, perhaps sees little with his blinders on, but in his humility he contributes much. St. Josemaría encourages us to work with the same spirit of fortitude, service and humility. The saint considered himself only a "mangy donkey". But, on one occasion, considering himself only an ass before Jesus, these words of the Lord came to his heart:"A donkey was my throne in Jerusalem".
Such a consideration can help us live today's feast, Palm Sunday, with which we begin Holy Week. The crowds acclaimed Christ that day and the disciples shared their Master's acclamation as they accompanied him as he entered the city. But five days later, those same crowds were clamoring for his blood and the disciples had cowardly abandoned him. Perhaps we would do better to try to be like the donkey: a humble instrument of Christ, unnoticed, barely noticed, but serving him in his work of redemption.
When we work without complaining; when we act as "thrones" for God, and not ourselves, to shine; when we bear the burden of others, we are being Christ's donkey.
Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9-10. But that same prophecy tells us that Our Lord's mission is one of peace. "Proclaim peace to the peoples". At present, the nations do not seem to be listening. What can we do? We can only continue to "carry" Jesus in our lives through our prayer and our own peaceful behavior, striving to be peacemakers in our environment (Mt 5:9). And so we will be God's children, and also his donkeys.
Homily on the Palm Sunday readings (B)
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
