Sue Agnew

Dear friends in Christ,

Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew is Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Rather than trying to figure out why this reading was assigned to some random Saturday in June, I started thinking about a Lenten series a few years ago, led by Fr Michael Anderson, that focused on the poetry of Mary Oliver. During that series, he introduced us to the following poem:

The Poet Thinks about the Donkey

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
  leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
  clatter away, splashed with sunlight.

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
—Mary Oliver

Each of us fulfills multiple roles during our lifetime. Some we seek out and work to achieve. Some we avoid, or would prefer to avoid but perform anyway. Some we aren’t even aware we are carrying out. Some seem lofty; some seem mundane. But we can learn from Mary Oliver’s donkey, even the most humble role can be holy.

Yours in Christ,

—Sue