Day 40: The Road of the Cross, The Way of Love – Discerning Hearts Podcast

A Latin spiritual journey with discerning hearts from ashes to glory.

Dave Forty, the road of the cross, the way of love, a reading from the Holy Gospel according

to Mark, chapter 11 verses 1 through 10.

When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the mount

of olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,

go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a tethered

cult that no one has yet ridden.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone says to you, what are you doing, say, the master needs it and will send it back

here directly.

They went off and found a cult tethered near a door in the open street.

As they untied it, some men standing there said, what are you doing, untying that cult?

They gave the answer Jesus had told them and the men let them go.

Then they took the cult to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, others greenery they had cut in the fields,

and those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting,

Hosanna, blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord, blessings on the coming

kingdom of our Father David, Hosanna in the highest heavens.

We have arrived.

This is the threshold of Holy Week, the most sacred time of the church year.

It is a culmination, not just of the liturgical journey, but of the inner pilgrimage we've

taken through Lent.

Prayer, fasting, repentance, surrender, none of it was for its own sake.

It is all pointed toward this week, where love reveals its fullness on the cross.

Some Sunday as a paradox, the people cry out with joy, welcoming Jesus with palm branches

and Hosanna's.

Yet, we know the story turns quickly.

The same voices that bless him will call for his crucifixion.

This tension is not just historical, it is personal.

It reminds us that in our own hearts, we too swing between praise and resistance, between

surrender and fear, between trust and control.

And yet Christ enters anyway.

He rides not on a warhorse, but on a donkey, a symbol of humility.

He does not come to conquer by forests, but to save through self-giving love.

This week we walk with him through the upper room, into Cassandra, before the Sanhedrin,

up the hill of Gogotha, and finally to the silence of the tomb.

But we do not walk alone.

We walk as a church.

We walk as a people who have prayed, repented, struggled, and hoped.

We walk with hearts that have been softened, through the desert, ready to know, ready now,

to enter into the Passion.

Saint Bernard of Clarevaux wrote,

The cross is the school of love.

It is there we learn to love, not in word or feeling only, but in the laying down of self.

This is what Len has prepared us for.

To gaze upon the cross, not as a symbol of defeat, but of the deepest victory.

To allow it to speak to our wounds, our questions, our hopes.

To find ourselves there, not as spectators, but as those Christ carried with him.

The desert father, Abatheedor, said,

This is not a week to rush through.

It is a week to dwell in, to let the Scriptures penetrate, to let silence stretch,

to revisit the sacraments, to stay close to the blessed mother, who walked every step

with her son, to let Jesus show us how far love will go.

We do not end at the cross, but we must go through it.

Resurrection is coming, but it is only understood in the light of the Passion.

If you've struggled this lent, if you feel like you haven't done enough, take heart.

This is your hour of grace.

Begin again, now.

Be with him now.

As the church sings, Christ became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Therefor God has highly exalted him.

When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount

of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them,

Go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a tethered

cult that no one has yet written.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone says to you, what are you doing?

Say, the master needs it and will send it back here directly.

They went off and found a cult tethered near a door in the open street.

As they untied it, some men standing there said,

What are you doing untying that cult?

They gave the answer Jesus had told them and the men let them go.

Then they took the cult to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, others greenery they had cut in the fields,

and those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting,

How has your heart changed through this Latin journey?

What part of Jesus' passion are you being invited to enter more deeply this week?

How can you live this holy week with greater intentionality?

Prayer, silence, reconciliation, service?

Lord Jesus, as you entered Jerusalem, you knew what awaited you, and still you came.

You embraced the cross to bring us life.

Open our hearts to walk with you in this holy week.

And every step draws close to your heart.

Give us the grace to stay near to you in suffering, in silence, and in love.

May the cross become our home, and the resurrection, our hope, Amen.