The Very Stones Would Cry Out

[A reflection on the First Gospel for Palm Sunday, which may be found here.]

There are few cases in the Scriptures when the mute or inanimate speak, and that happens only at the most momentous of occasions when something either horribly egregious or wonderful is covered up. Case in point, the very first human-on-human murder (we'll save Satan's murder of humanity for a later discussion) was covered up by Cain, not willing that anyone, not even God, should find out what he did to his brother Abel. When God confronted Cain, He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground..." (Gen. 4.10)

Consider the Son of God entering into Jerusalem in fulfilment of the words of the Prophet Zechariah. The crowd looking on, likely His disciples or those caught up in the moment, cry out, "Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!" When confronted about it, Jesus told His critics that had they not done so, then the very rocks would cry out in witness to the event. Some things are so momentous that they cannot be kept quiet, one of them being the giver of the salvation of not just human kind but all created order approaching the culmination of that task.

What would have happened had the crowds been mute? Would the rocks indeed have taken up where we left off? Were we to cease our prayers, would the cosmos step into the void left by our silence to offer up its pleas? We do not know, for what happened here is that people did not stand idly by, they did not watch in silence, and they were not passive in the praise and entreaty of the goodwill and grace of Him who came in the Lord's name. May we never have to find that out, may our prayers never cease.