Holy Week and the anticipation of bereavement

I have just one 'working week' left before my renewal leave begins. The months have passed by, spring is finally here and I've just seven days before I'm bereft of the rewarding role that has occupied me so fully for six years. We celebrated Palm Sunday this morning and the familiar story of Jesus' entry into Jersualem was given a new edge for me when I reflected on the journey that it represented.

The journey into Jerusalem begins farther back in the gospels than we sometimes appreciate. In Mark for example, the half-way point in chapter nine is the downhill turn from the Mount of Transfiguration, when the gospel records Jesus speaking of his death and resurrection.

At Jerusalem the tension increases. All that anticipation and now the moment arrives. Among the shouts of Hosanna at the city gates and amidst the tingle of excitement of arrival do his disciples tremble to remember that Jesus spoke of his dying and the promise of his absence?

Healthy bereavement involves embracing the reality of what is lost from the future. So with mingled excitement and nervousness I anticipate a special Holy Week this year. One that will include my own small bereavements as I prepare to be displaced and dislocated until I return home.