Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 39

Standing at the threshold of Holy Week, this reflective episode draws profound connections between Christ's Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem and the ultimate judgment that awaits us all. The triumphant waving of palm fronds by the Jerusalem crowds foreshadows two momentous events: Christ's resurrection and His return as Judge of the living and the dead.

We delve into Jesus' own description of the last judgment, where humanity will be separated based on our treatment of "the least of these." Have we recognized Christ in the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and imprisoned?

St. John Vianney offers us a revolutionary perspective on suffering: "When the day of judgment comes, we will be so happy for our misfortunes, so proud of our humiliations, so rich by our sacrifices." This paradoxical wisdom invites us to transform our understanding of life's difficulties. As we prepare for Holy Week, we're challenged to see the Church herself as undergoing her own passion—a period of suffering and apparent defeat spanning decades. Our prayers during this sacred time can be offered for her renewal, not merely aesthetically but in her moral authority and influence in a world that desperately needs her guidance yet often mocks her voice. Will you join us in praying that after this extended passion, the Bride of Christ might experience her own resurrection?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Passion Week
• 2:57 Today's Reading from "Toward Easter"
• 5:32 Reflections on Judgment Day
• 7:22 Prayer and Resolutions
• 9:17 Personal Reflection on Church's Passion
• 12:27 Closing and Next Episode Preview

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Sancte, sancte, amare morti decadast nos. Good morning everyone and welcome to Saturday in Passion Week. We are on day 39 of Lent. Today and tomorrow is the beginning of Holy Week. And tomorrow is the beginning of Holy Week and if, for some reason, you're just finding this now, this series, you can find the work we're reading from, which is Toward Easter. You can find it in the description below. These videos are on YouTube, on Rumble, and the audio is on most of the audio podcast apps. I will put up an image on screen. You just listen. Don't have to worry about watching while I read the reading from the book and then we will discuss it shortly. So, without further ado, here we go. Saturday in Passion Week.

Speaker 1: 2:16

In the light of Judgment Day, from the Gospel of St John, chapter 12, verses 12-13. A great multitude took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Jesus, crying Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. In the Gospel of today, the people acclaimed Jesus in Jerusalem with palm fronds and cries of triumph. Even pagans joined with them to applaud him. What joy the future harvest runs to meet him. This triumph of Palm Sunday already announces that of the resurrection, but also that of the last judgment, which will be preceded by the resurrection of the dead. Jesus announced it in these terms the hour is coming in which all who are in the tomb shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life, but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment. Our Lord will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will say to those at his right hand Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger and you took me in Naked and you covered me Sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me. Then our Lord will say to those who are at his left hand depart from me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you did not give me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. Kind Jesus, help me to regret profoundly, during this Holy Week, all of my life that has displeased Thee, and to practice good works, so that I might appear before Thee with confidence when Thou returnest to judge me.

Speaker 1: 4:46

And now a prayer from the Matins Hymn for Lent In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, amen. Let us turn away the just anger of the Lord. Let us weep before our judge, let us cry out in supplication and prostrate. Let us all say by the sins which we have committed, we have offended thy clemency. O God, forgive the evil which we have done. Increase in us the good which we desire to do, so that by it we might please thee here, below and in eternity. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Our first thought is actually also from Matins. This is Matins in Passion Tide and it's Psalm 94, 7 through 8. Today, if you hear the voice of God, harden not your hearts. Our second thought is from St John Vianney. When the day of judgment comes, we will be so happy for our misfortunes, so proud of our humiliations, so rich by our sacrifices. We have three resolutions today. The first let us stir up in our soul a profound contrition for the sins in our past life which most wounded the heart of Jesus. The second let us make reparation for our sins by a more steady life of prayer and a life fruitful in good works. Let us make here a concrete resolution. And number three in seeing the passion of the church, let us offer our prayer so that she may quickly rediscover her splendor of old. And there we have it. There's our reading. There's our reading for today. Okay, let's see if I can gather my thoughts here.

Speaker 1: 7:34

I like the third resolution for today. I think we are seeing at least a passion of the church. I think we've been seeing that for 70 years now and it's, it's something that you know, during during the passion, during Holy Week. I guess I often don't see those connections, just maybe because I'm concentrating too much on the actual events of Holy Week not that one can concentrate too much on them, but this year I'm going to try to view Holy Week through that lens a little more.

Speaker 1: 8:31

I'm not sure how, yet I'll have to think about that, but it's definitely a good time, good season of the year to pray for the church and the passion that she is going through, to pray that she recovers and rediscovers her splendor, not just in the aesthetic sense, right, I mean, yes, we'd all love the Pope to take up the papal tiara again, and I mean there's more to that, of course, than just the aesthetic sense. There's, there's a lot of meaning and symbolism there with the tiara, of course. But what I mean is that, like, yes, you know you, you see the old videos and the old zoomer edits of of the church inner, you know glory days and the beauty was just incredible. The beauty, the splendor, the grandeur was incredible and of course, we'd all love that to return aesthetically, but even more so, just the splendor of her authority, right, the splendor of her authority, right, the splendor of her moral authority, of her morality. That's what we really need to pray for. You know that we need to pray for a world in which the Pope can say something or condemn something and the world actually changes, instead of just laughing at the Pope, laughing at the church Granted today, I mean, yeah, so I guess that is going to be one of my main concentrations for the upcoming week is praying for the church and her passion. You know that we can move through the passion that we're in now to a sort of Easter Sunday for the church, a sort of Easter Sunday for the church, sort of resurrection for the Bride of Christ.

Speaker 1: 11:06

So I'm going to cut this a little shorter than usual because I actually have to record tomorrow's right now as well, uh, because we are, our family is traveling, uh, today and tomorrow. So I need to cut this a little shorter than usual so that I can record tomorrow's, which is going to be a little longer than usual, at least in the reading, because of the pump, because it's palm sunday, um. So, thank all, sorry for cutting today short, but if you wanted one tomorrow, it had to be done. So I will see you all. Well, my recording will see you all again tomorrow. But thank you all, hope you have a great day and prepare yourself for the beginning of Holy Week tomorrow. Thank you.