Last week, in preparation for our Corpus Christi procession, I joined two of our altar servers, Sanir Jabaiya and Ryan Maurice, in a little cleanup along Woodward Avenue. We picked up a full garbage bag of trash and trimmed low tree branches that otherwise would have snagged our beautiful baldacchino (the canopy which shelters and highlights the Blessed Sacrament) as the procession passed under.
At one point after we had cut down a bunch of branches, we looked at how they were all covering the sidewalk — the sidewalk which would soon be graced with Jesus in the Eucharist. The image brought to mind how the crowd laid palm branches on the road before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem to enact his Passion. For a brief moment the three of us entertained the idea of just leaving the branches there for that reason.
A bit further down the sidewalk, we started clearing more low-hanging branches from a Honey Locust. These branches were armed and dangerous! They had nasty sharp thorns 1 to 3 inches long. As we carefully collected these branches, mindful that any one of the thorns could easily pierce the bottom of our shoe, we paused, contemplating how thorns much like these were in the crown pressed into Jesus’ precious head during his Passion. It was a chilling and sorrowful thought!
In these seemingly ordinary springtime activities, Sanir, Ryan, and I were given tangible graces to help us remember and encounter Jesus. How true it is what Jesus told his apostles and us: “I am with you always” … even (and perhaps especially) in the most ordinary places.
In the peace of Christ,
Deacon Mike