The Donkey By GK Chesterton
Holy Week has lots of small little subplots and characters.
The imagination of GK Chesterton was able to pick up on the most subtle of all, The Donkey that carried Our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
In ‘The Donkey’, Chesterton reflects on the quiet humility not just of the donkey, but on all who follow the Lord in the quiet of their own lives.
The Donkey was foretold by Zacheriah 9:9
‘Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey’
Chesterton’s use of ‘shout around my ears’ appears to echo this.
It is a beautiful reminder that all of our lives have purpose on this Earth, even if others cannot see it, even if it seems only fleeting.
The Donkey by GK Chesterton
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
