Reflection for Sunday – April 13, 2025

Sr. Karen Dietz, SSJSunday Readings Homilies

Readings: Luke 19-28-40; Isaiah 50: 4-7; Philippians 2: 6-11; Luke 22: 14-23:56 
Preacher: Sr. Karen Dietz

Today we enter into Jesus’ final days. The scripture stories are familiar and the moods of the week palpable.  

I invite you to pray with your imagination. At the start of Passion Sunday we hear the first Gospel reading, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This is the door we must pass through if we are to understand all that transpires in the days ahead. 

Take a moment to read Luke 19: 28-40.  Ask God for the grace to accompany Jesus at this time. See, hear, smell what is happening if you can.  

As I prayed with this Gospel, I found myself as one of the two unnamed disciples—the ones sent to prepare the room for the Passover. I had these questions and observations as I followed Jesus’ instructions. 

  • Jesus seems quite sure of himself. He tells us the colt and the questioners will be there. He seems to know that all it will take is the phrase “The Lord has need of it.”  
  • The other disciple and I are afraid for Jesus, and we wish he would not go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Wouldn’t it be better to be more low-key and less likely to be found, for we know Jesus is a hunted man, and by association, so are we. 

And so we return with the colt; others follow, throwing their garments on the road to keep the dust down for the ride. All of a sudden there is singing, praising God and naming Jesus King! This does not bode well for Jesus and maybe even for us.  

Finally, the pharisees beg Jesus to silence the crowd, and Jesus’ response is chilling; if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. Jesus is so clear. 

We began this Lenten season on Ash Wednesday with St. Paul to the Corinthians proclaiming: “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation!” Jesus is grabbing hold of this and telling us now is the time. He has more clarity about the end game, the completion of his earthly mission and he is drawing us in.  

The disciples who have been with him these 3 years are probably thinking that the mission of preaching, conversion and healing could be enough. I am sure they sense the danger of this new direction.  

Aren’t we sometimes tempted to stop with this triumphant entry and celebration and forgo the rest of Holy Week? It is so challenging to move into the pain and unimaginable suffering depicted for us in the stories of the passion.  

As Christians we have the advantage of knowing the end of the story. We know that resurrection will come on Holy Saturday evening and that the ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit will follow. How often would we prefer to jump over this week to Sunday?  

I invite us all to take time this week to read the scriptures with all our senses. Ask God for the grace to be with Jesus, accompanying him in his sorrow and pain. This is not some exercise in self-harm, but rather a way to more fully understand and take on the joy of the resurrection.  

The Lenten season offered 40+ days to fast, pray and give alms, preparing our hearts not only for Easter but for a renewed sense of mission. This has been a desert experience to strengthen us. Accompanying Jesus to the cross reminds us of our own crosses and those of our world. 

In that same reading from Ash Wednesday St. Paul urges us to be ambassadors for reconciliation.  I don’t know how to do that at this time in our world. I am confused and chagrined by the rhetoric, the seeming inability to listen to others and to hold differing points of view without needing to be “right.”  

What I do know is that Jesus lived, suffered, died and rose from the dead so that we might have life and live it to the full. That is what Palm Sunday, and this Holy Week celebrate. This is where we find the hope and the courage to carry on. And so, we sit in the pain. We call forth the stories on the news of suffering on our city streets and around the world. We bring all of this as we arrive in Jerusalem amidst rejoicing and praising and also as we accompany Jesus to the cross.  

Let us pray for one another this week and beyond. I pray that strengthened by this journey, we may all be beacons of hope and reconciliation in our corners of the world. Now is the acceptable time, now it is time for us to not be silent! Together we can banish the darkness of fear, division and polarization. The journey to Jerusalem and calvary is the way. 

Sr. Karen Dietz, SSJ
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