The Passion
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
April 10, 2014
NOW that we are in Holy
Week, it’s good to remind ourselves of how important it is to meditate
on the Passion of Christ. It’s the culminating act of his redemptive
mission that covers his whole life here on earth. Everything that he
is as the Son of God who became man, everything that he said and did
for our salvation is contained there.
We have to understand, on
the basis of our Christian faith, that the Passion of Christ is an
organic whole that includes his death on the Cross and his
resurrection. It is also organically linked to everything else about
him.
Nothing in his life is
irrelevant or unnecessary in his Passion. It should not be considered
in isolation. It’s good that we realize this truth of our faith more
deeply and more practically, so that we don’t develop an unnecessary
distorted attitude toward it that often translates itself into a
certain dislike for it.
The Passion, in spite of its
ugliness, pain and gore, is actually a beautiful, desirable event that
we should get attracted to. In the first place, it is an essential and
necessary element in our life. We cannot avoid it without compromising
our eternal destiny.
And being God and not only
as man, Christ makes his Passion take place live every time the
liturgy of his Passion is celebrated. This is highlighted precisely
during this Holy Week, but is actually presented to us also every time
the Holy Mass or any liturgical act is celebrated.
And so, when we participate
in that celebration, we are actually, through the sacramental economy,
living witnesses of the event, even if only in a sacramental way. We
become contemporaries of Christ in his supreme act of love for us.
Therefore, while involving
extreme suffering that a man can experience, the Passion actually is
also a joyful event of a victory, a conquest over what is most harmful
to us – sin, and with sin our eternal death.
We should train our mind and
heart to capture this wonderful reality, presented to us by our
Christian faith, and to react accordingly, that is, to enter into the
very dynamics of loving, and thereby bringing our fondness for loving
to its ultimate level, extricating it from the low, base and often
fake and deceptive forms of love.
In the Passion, Death and
Resurrection of Christ, we see in action those very consoling words of
Christ: “Greater love than this no man has, that a man lays down his
life for his friends.” (Jn 15,13)
What actually takes place
there is Christ, being sinless, assuming all our sins and dying to
them so that we may have a way to resurrect from them through his own
Resurrection. This is the ultimate of love!
This much the Letter to the
Hebrews affirms: “Christ offers himself only once to take the faults
of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it will not be
to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting
for him.” (9,28)
This is what supreme love is
all about. It is not contented with wishing others well or sharing
things with others. It will go to the extent of suffering for the
others, making as one’s own the burdens of the others, even if the
others would not correspond. It is a love that is fully given and
completely gratuitous.
Thus, when we meditate on
the Passion of Christ, we have to realize the love that drips
copiously. We should not forget that sin is what causes it, and
therefore, we should do everything to avoid sin.
It’s good to develop a
healthy hatred of sin as well as a certain dominion over it, such that
as much as possible we do not allow it to affect us badly. If ever, it
should make us intensify our love for God and others, giving ourselves
more and more in a crescendo typical of love.
We have to be very generous
in our self-giving and continuing effort of sanctification, both
personal and social. We have to be ready to carry out this task
competently.
And since we cannot avoid
sin, the meditation of the Passion should reassure us of the infinite
mercy of God. We have to be very generous in our spirit of penance,
always seeking conversion, renewal and the many forms of atonement,
reparation and purification.
Special attention has to be
given to the sacrament of confession, that wonderful tribunal of
divine justice and mercy. We need to love it deeply by resorting to it
regularly.