Sunday/Palm Sunday

It is said that with the rampant mendacity in the last administration, the clear priority of power over the representation, the incredible incompetence, and the willingness to maintain a shadow government, the Democrat party is irreparably damaged.
But Kamala Harris won 74,999,166 votes or 48.3 percent of the votes cast. Trump won 77,284,118 votes, or 49.8 percent of the votes cast for president.
The party has survived slavery, the Civil War, the Wilson administration, Roosevelt, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the national debt.
The Democrat Party may not be good for democracy but democracy does not seem to understand that.

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Sunday/Palm Sunday

An Old Testament battle began over succession to David's throne. Solomon is David's choice over a false claimant. Solomon arrives in victory to Jerusalem riding on an ass. He then builds the new temple.

So, the bible endorses symbolism and poetry. The concrete world, not so much. 

Today is Palm Sunday, a long and difficult Gospel from Holy Thursday to Christ's burial, filled with drama, conflict, and ambiguity. It is so dramatic, so much a part of the Western world, it is hard to believe students are regularly deprived of it. 

That frustrating, "That is what you say." And this strange back-and-forth which sounds bitterly ironic, even in Christ's mouth:
He said to them,
“But now one who has a money bag should take it,
and likewise a sack,
and one who does not have a sword
should sell his cloak and buy one.
For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me,
namely, He was counted among the wicked;
and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment.”
Then they said,
“Lord, look, there are two swords here.”
But he replied, “It is enough!”

The Gospel is oblique as Christ is passive throughout; the real actors are the humans. Humans fail on just about every level you can imagine. Christ's friends leave Him, the future head of the Church denies Him, the religious organization that He is a member of conspires against Him, and the State washes its hands of Him, unable to follow even its own laws. 

It's a pretty ugly picture. There are some obvious explanations. Christ is the only answer. Friends are fickle and the world transient. Organizations can not be relied upon. They may all be true. But there seems to be very little faith in human beings or their constructs. Even the tried-and-true customs and institutions that we all think of as society's DNA fall apart.

It is a nightmare, a moral and social dystopia. Chaos of the spirit. The storm that comes later after Golgotha is only an exclamation point. 

What does come through in astonishing clarity is the unbelievable gentleness of the victim, gentle and forgiving. 

It is overwhelming.