The Burning of Palms – apparently, in years past, this is something which has taken place quietly and out of sight. This year, we will burn last year’s palms in the plain sight of all. As fires go, it is matched only by the lighting of the New Fire at the Easter Vigil, and the dancing of tongues of fire over the believers’ heads at Pentecost. (We mustn’t forget the importance of fire in our Judaeo-Christian symbology: Moses encounters God in burning bush; the children of Israel are led through the wilderness to the Promised Land by a pillar of fire; Elijah outperforms the prophets of Baal when his prayers (and not theirs) are sufficient to light a great bonfire from wet wood; John the Baptist warns that a great day of judgment, the Day of the Lord, will feature fire and purging… and so on.)

This Sunday, we will take last year’s palms and palm crosses – which at the time, were tokens of our enthusiastic hosannas and discipleship – and reduce them to the same rubble as all our other failed intentions. And on Ash Wednesday, we will humbly allow ourselves to be imprinted with this sign of our failure and our mortality. Not so we can stay there, wallowing in regret, but so that we can literally shake the dust off, and make a new start. Which is what repentance is. - MAT