Sunday, April 10th
Scripture
Is 50: 4-7
Ps 22: 8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Phil 2: 6-11
Lk 22: 14-23: 56
Reflection
Scripture scholars tell us that the passion/death/resurrection story of Jesus was the centerpiece of the gospels. If this is so, then the Palm Sunday story is the beginning of “the heart” of the gospel.
Think of Palm Sunday as full of praise and promise and possibility.
“The whole multitude of his disciples” were spreading their cloaks on the road as he passed… waving palm branches “praising God with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen…” at the hands of this wonderful man. (Luke 19:37)
Perhaps this was a day when Jesus knew that in his very person “heaven was wedded to Earth, and all was reconciled with God.” Daniel Berrigan says that Jesus “wore the world for wedding band.” Jesus celebrates his union with all creation, and the crowds join in this acclamation.
Stay with the joy, the triumph, the celebration we hear in this story of Jesus’ jubilant entrance into Jerusalem. All too soon we will have to move on, but for now, STAY!
Prayer
We walk the way of the cross with you, Jesus, and carry in our
hearts the suffering of people in our world. We know that we live
the paschal mystery—passion, death, and resurrection
—again, and again in our lives. We long for Easter morning.
As your disciples, we want to offer our world the consolation we
hardly dare believe.
Personal Challenge
Jesus knows our human life because he shares it. He wears our
world for wedding band–and invites us to do the same.
Sister Jeanne Cmolik, CSJ
Cleveland, OH
