Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 40 / Palm Sunday

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Palm Sunday stands as the monumental gate drawing us into the heart of our faith – Holy Week, the Holy of Holies of the liturgical year. As we join the Hebrew children waving palm branches and crying "Hosanna," we confront a profound paradox: the same crowds who welcome Jesus as king will soon demand His Crucifixion.

This stark contradiction mirrors our own spiritual journey. We proclaim Christ as King with our lips yet sometimes crucify Him in our hearts through sin and indifference. Yet throughout this drama, one truth remains unchangeable – Christ is victorious. "It is not death that Jesus goes to seek today in Jerusalem, it is triumph." Even as Israel rejected Him, a new people arose from all nations of earth to acclaim Him as King and Savior.

As we journey through Holy Week, each day invites us deeper into mystery: Monday (fidelity), Tuesday (silence), Wednesday (fortitude), Thursday (Eucharist and priesthood), Friday (sacrifice), and Saturday (hope). The liturgy brilliantly unites Christ's passion with resurrection, weaving themes of victory and joy even amidst suffering. We're called to unite ourselves with Christ's sacrifice by carrying our crosses and purifying ourselves of all that weakens our union with Him.

This week demands spiritual action. Make a good confession to prepare yourself for Easter communion. Offer prayers for those who oppose Christ's kingship, recognizing that all humanity remains subject to Christ in matters of faith and morals. Christ paid an immeasurable price for our salvation – a price we all must reckon with through either sacrifice in this life or purification in the next. Will you join in proclaiming not just with your words but with your life: Christ is King?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
SANTE, sante AMARE MORTI LECRADAS NUS IN TEIS VERA

(00:39):
VERUM In teis per a verum ofLent, and we have less than a
week.
Less than a week left.
Um, so yeah, we have PalmSunday, holy Monday, holy
Tuesday, spy Wednesday, maundyThursday, good Friday, holy
Saturday, and then Easter.

(01:01):
But let's not rush to Easter.
We have to get through HolyWeek, we have to get through the
Passion of the Lord, his death.
So we have a little bit of anextra reading today, at the

(01:22):
beginning, just a little snippeton Holy Week itself, and then
we will read Palm Sunday, whichis the kingship of Christ.
And yeah, so, without furtherado, I'm going to put up our
image on screen and start here.

(01:45):
Holy Week, the Heart, the Holyof Holies of the Liturgical Year
.
See how the Church hasgradually prepared us before
allowing us to enter Today.
She raises the veil of signsand symbols, she has us
contemplate the most sublime ofthe mysteries of salvation and

(02:07):
even has us participate in them.
During this week, we are goingto contemplate the sufferings
that our Lord Jesus Christendured over the course of His
Passion.
Beyond His physical sufferings,we will not forget to consider
His moral sufferings.
Indeed, his soul knew fear ashis passion approached.

(02:29):
Now, my soul is troubled.
John 12, 27.
He experienced sorrow duringhis agony, so much so that he
cried out my soul is sad evenunto death.
Matthew 26.38.
He endured shame in beingcondemned to an ignoble

(02:50):
execution between two brigands.
He also endured the mysticalpain of the silence of his
father, when he cried out my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?
Matthew 27, 46.
In applying our mind to theconsideration of his unutterable

(03:12):
sufferings, we will not forgetto consider the heroic virtues
that Jesus Christ manifested inthese circumstances the love of
his Father and the love of oursouls, humility and magnanimity,
strength and meekness.
Nor will we fail to see themarvelous effects of his passion

(03:33):
.
Indeed, the whole liturgyembraces in one glance the
passion and the resurrection ofour Lord.
His redemptive work does notend with his death, but
continues in the victory of hisLord.
His redemptive work does notend with his death, but
continues in the victory of hisresurrection, and so we will not
separate his passion from hisresurrection.

(03:55):
The liturgy is not meant only asa lamentation over the death of
Christ and a compassion for hissufferings.
No, in all of this week we hearaccents of victory and joy.
We see in the passion of Christ, a transition which leads us to
the glory of the resurrection.
There is not a single dayduring all this week when we do

(04:16):
not hear, in a clear anddistinct manner, themes of
Easter and songs of victory.
We have but to think of PalmSunday with the royal homage
rendered to the Lord, of HolyThursday with the solemn Mass of
the Last Supper and theblessing of the holy oils.
Of Good Friday with theelevation of the cross as a sign

(04:38):
of victory.
Palm Sunday is the monumentalgate which draws us into the
holy mysteries of Easter.
That last paragraph there isfrom a guide for the liturgical
year by Dom Pius Parsh Parsh,and I guess you can see that in

(05:03):
the church's year of grace fromliturgical press in 1953.
And now Palm Sunday, thekingship of Christ.
From the first antiphon for thedistribution of palms, hebrew
children bearing olive brancheswent forth to meet the Lord,

(05:24):
crying out and saying Hosanna inthe highest.
It is not death that Jesus goesto seek today in Jerusalem, it
is triumph.
The prophet Zachary hadforetold this ovation in these
acclamations.
Son of David, jesus makes hisentry as king.

(05:48):
Israel acclaims him as king.
In a short time from now, thesame people will cry out for his
death, but he is still the king, the Messiah.
He will remain so forever.
Israel will soon refuse to beunder his scepter, but a new
people, issued from a faithfulportion of the first, will soon

(06:12):
rise, formed from all thenations of the earth.
We are the children of thispeople and we too come to
acclaim him.
He is our King, our Savior, thevanquisher of death.
Even if we resist his grace,our Lord remains forever the
victor.

(06:32):
His victory over the prince ofthis world was total and mankind
was redeemed by him.
Prince of this world was totaland mankind was redeemed by him.
But his heart, so loving, isnot content with having merited
salvation for the entire flock.
He ardently desires that eachof his sheep unite himself to
his sacrifice and carry hiscross after him in order to make

(06:56):
that salvation effective.
Lord Jesus, like the Hebrewchildren, I too want to lay my
coat on thy path, that is to say, I want to rid myself of all
that is superfluous, of all thatcould weaken in the slightest
way my union with thee.
I want to purify my conscienceof all that hinders today my

(07:20):
union with Thee, in particularby making a good confession.
Reign also in my soul by holycommunion.
Reign always more fully over myintelligence, over my will and
over my heart.
Reign over my family and all ofsociety.
And now a prayer from FatherGabriel of St Mary Magdalene,

(07:49):
divine Intimacy, volume 2, page221.
In the name of the Father andof the Son and of the Holy Ghost
, amen.
O Jesus, I want to follow Theein Thy triumph and then
accompany Thee all the way toCalvary.
In the name of the Father andof the Son and of the Holy Ghost

(08:11):
, amen.
Our first thought today is fromSt Teresa of Avila.
Let us never be wary ofpraising our Lord and King, who
is so mighty and who hasprepared a kingdom for us of
which there shall be no end, inreturn for a little hardship

(08:31):
amid a thousand joys, but whichwill end tomorrow.
May he be blessed forever.
And our second thought is fromSt Maximilian Kolbe Strive with
care to seek the will of God andto refuse God no sacrifice, no
wariness.
We have three resolutions today.

(08:58):
The first resolution we havethree resolutions today.
The first resolution Let ustake advantage of Holy Week to
continue the work ofpurification carried out during
this Lent.
Our second resolution With theBlessed Virgin, let us prepare

(09:21):
for and make a good confession,as well as a fervent Easter
communion.
And our third resolution Let usoffer a prayer for the heads of
state who oppose Jesus Christand do not want to be subject to
him or to his church and thedomains touching faith and
morals.
That third resolution, man, uh,especially after um, especially

(09:57):
after the, that part of themeditation, uh, where it says,
uh, a new people, issued from afaithful portion of the first
Israel will soon rise, formed ofall the nations of the earth,
and that we are the children ofthis people and we too come to
acclaim him.
Uh, I think all the, theChristian and Catholic Zionist

(10:25):
should, should read that part.
Um, uh, the Christian andCatholic Zionist should read
that part.
And then, of course, praying forall the heads of state who
oppose Jesus Christ, I mean,granted, well, let's be fair,
that's most of them, like a vastmajority of them, but I can

(10:50):
think of a couple specificallythat at least I will be praying
for, because, whether we like itor not, christ is king.
Christ is king and always willbe, and we are subject to him.
The whole world is, the wholeworld is subject to Christ, the
whole world is subject to Christand the whole world is subject

(11:14):
to Christ's church, at least inthe domains touching faith and
morals.
And it's good to remember today, on Palm Sunday, when he was
welcomed into Jerusalem as kingby the very people who would cry
out for his death andcrucifixion less than a week
later.
And yeah, it was a specificpeople that did that.

(11:38):
But we too, also often willproclaim him king and then also
crucify him in our own heartstoo.
Will proclaim his, proclaim himKing and then also crucify him
in our own hearts too.
We can't forget that, like,there is personal responsibility
for that um in our own heartsand our own souls.

(12:02):
But, uh, but take this day toproclaim the kingship of Christ,
proclaim it loudly, andremember that today is the gate
in which we enter into Holy Weekhere.

(12:27):
Tomorrow we will be talkingabout fidelity.
Tuesday, silence.
Wednesday, fortitude.
Thursday we'll be talking aboutthe mass, the Eucharist, the
priesthood.
Friday we'll be considering theyou know the price that Christ

(12:48):
prayed for our salvation.
And Saturday we'll be talkingabout hope.
So just remember the week we'reentering into today.
Proclaim Christ as King, butdon't forget the price to that
kingship, you know, and it's aprice that we all too will have

(13:08):
to pay someday, whether you know, whether it's through sacrifice
and penance here on earth or,for at least a time, in
purgatory or eternally in hell.
One way you don't get out ofthis without paying the same
price in some way or fashion.
But regardless, have a goodPalm Sunday today.

(13:32):
Have a holy Palm Sunday.
Get to confession.
Get to confession so you canmake a good Easter communion
sometime this week.
Get to confession, no matterwhat, and and yeah, I hope
you'll have a great, great start, great and holy start to holy

(13:54):
week here and um, and we'll walkthrough it together every
morning.
So, thank you all, have a greatday and we'll see you all
tomorrow, on Holy Monday.