The Passion of Christ = self-emptying for the sake of love and Obedience of Jesus

 The Passion of Christ = self-emptying for the sake of love
and Obedience of Jesus

As we are in the Lenten season and in Holy Week, let us reflect on the true meaning of the passion of Christ. I know the fact that we cannot grasp with our minds the whole passion of Christ, or even see into its depths.

1. Passion of love – not just suffering

The word “passion” has two meanings: one, a very strong emotion such as love; the other, the sufferings of Jesus. It was this strong emotion, strong love, that initiated the incarnation. As goes the hymn, “Love it was that made us and love it was that saved us.”

We read in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”
Romans 8:32, “God who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all…”

Not only did God give His son, but He subjected him to a lot of suffering, rejection, and finally to death. God could not have done this if He were not passionate about a particular cause – the redemption of humanity. Therefore, the suffering and death of Jesus should not be looked at merely from its negative aspect (the suffering only); rather, it should be looked at as having had a reason, namely, the passionate love and the commitment of Jesus. It was only this passionate love that could really make a person suffer and die such a death.

Jesus died because he was passionately in love with humanity. His love could not be questioned by suffering. He could truly look death in the face and ask: “Oh, death, where is your sting; oh death, where is your victory?” (1 Cor. 16:55).

This truly is the meaning of the death of Jesus. He came to do God’s will in the world. He knew it. He anxiously looked forward to its completion, as we read in Luke 12:50, where Jesus said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” He accomplished this not grudgingly but with love. This is the essence of obedience – not just doing the job that is given, but doing it to the best of one’s ability with love. Once the job was over, Jesus said, “It is finished; into your hands I give my life.” Our ultimate mission in life is to surrender everything to God, including our lives. Do we do that?

The obedience of Christ is the aspect of the passion most emphasized in apostolic teaching: we read Philippians 2:8, “Christ became obedient unto death, even death on a cross”; Romans 5:19, “by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous”; Hebrews 5:8-9, “he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”.

St. Bernard rightly said, “It was not his death alone that pleased the Father, but his voluntary surrender to death.” It is not so much the death of Christ itself that has saved us as it is his obedience unto death.

In 1 Samuel 15:22 and Hebrews 10:5-7, we read that God desires obedience, not sacrifice, according to Scripture. Thus, the passion of Christ was the test and the measure of his obedience.

It was the obedience of Christ to the Father. St. Irenaeus interprets the obedience of Jesus as an interior, absolute submission to God in an extremely difficult situation.

At Gethsemane, Jesus says to the Father, “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). According to the Alexandrian School, the will of “I” (the Incarnated Word, Jesus Christ) and the will of “you” (the Father) are the same. According to the Antiochene School, the “I” is the man Jesus; because of Adam’s disobedience, it must necessarily be the obedience of a man, the New Adam, representing humanity, and the “you” is God, whom he obeys!

Later, it was more clearly clarified in the Third Council of Constantinople that the “I” is the incarnate Word who speaks according to the free human will he has assumed; the “you” is the will of the Trinity that the Word has in common with the Father. It is the human act of God; it is a divine-human act. It is through this obedience that all were made righteous, as we see in Romans 5:18-19.

Why is it so important to obey God? It is important because in obeying, we do the will of God.

How do we partake of the Passion of Jesus?

1. Being with Jesus:

In Mathew 26:38, Jesus says to his disciples, “Remain here, and watch with me.” When we are confronted with the sorrow of a person, we cannot do much. We can only stay with the pain of the other. We can only keep watch with Jesus in his suffering, and he does not ask us to do anything more. Just be with him. Let us try to remain with Jesus in his passion and try to accompany him, truly sorrowing with him. Let not Jesus tell u, “Could you not stay awake with me for even an hour?” (Mathew 26:40).

2. Looking at others

When we are immersed in this passion narrative, we can also look at the different players in this whole drama of liberation. Speak to them, ask them questions; listen to them. See how we feel about it at the end. When we are dealing with the passion of Jesus, time does not matter. Remain with him. Remain there silently drinking in this mystery of love.

How to Understand Suffering

1. Suffering as punishment for Transgression

This is the first and oldest understanding of suffering. When a child commits some mistake in the family or when an adult commits some crime in society, they are punished. Similarly, when we humans commit something wrong, God punishes by sending suffering. This model can be found in the book of Job (19:25-29). This model is accepted at the time of Genesis (4:1-16; 19:1-29). But the problem with this model is what about the case of innocents suffering, for example, children suffering because of war or born with congenital defects. They do not suffer for any of their faults.

2. Suffering is a test

According to this model, the world is a testing ground, a battleground. The righteous or victorious would be rewarded and others thrown into hell. This we find at the time of Exodus (20:20). Again the suffering of innocents created a problem. How can they be tested, since they do not know anything yet?

3. Suffering is a process of salvation

In Mathew 16:22, we read, “If anyone wants to be my follower, let him take up his cross and follow me.” Suffering is walking with Christ and working with him to bring creation to completion. When we become partners with Christ, sufferings are part of the package (Read Hebrews 10:32-36).

Walking with Christ means carrying the Cross. Therefore, suffering is a vocation; it is part of the call to be a disciple of Christ. By entering religious life or by becoming a priest, the price is not paid fully. The price has to be paid over a period of time. We can see clearly in the Gospels the several stages in the process of paying the price:

Read Mark 10:21 – this is the simplest and the first stage. (1) Jesus wants (the rich man) to sell all that he has. That is what most religious people who profess the vow of poverty are expected to do. It does not mean money alone; it could be name and fame, position. Jesus wants to ‘sell off’ the other forms of wealth that we possess. (2) It has to be given to the poor. Why poor? Because one cannot claim it anymore. It is gone forever. (3) Then follow Jesus. This is a high price indeed!

Read Mathew 18:3 - It is addressed to the disciples - “to become like little children” – guileless, simple; they manifest the presence of God in them. This is a spiritual transformation that has to take place.

John 3:3 – addressed to Nicodemus, a good Pharisee, one who really wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus. The demand is “be born again” – The kingdom of God is a new reality, a new life; therefore, the old has to die. The routine and rule-infested Pharisaic life has to die. Only then can one be born with the freedom of the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Read Luke 10:41-42 – “being with Jesus”; it is a way of life; it is the real price that one has to pay for being a true disciple of Jesus. One thing necessary is to listen to the Word of God. Very often, we are busy with so many things that we forget to BE. There is much more to life than work and ‘material’ achievement.

Every payment results in giving up our SELF, in other words, self-denial or self-emptying. When this emptying of self reaches its final stages, one can say with Saint Paul, “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

So, if an infant suffers, it is not because it is at fault or it is being tested; it is also participating in completing creation.

We need to remember something here;

This does not mean that there is nothing to be done in the face of suffering; suffering generated by poverty, hunger, and injustice cannot be just endured as part of a redemptive process. God did not create a suffering world; He created a Paradise – a happy world. God does not want people to be suffering; He wants them to be happy and joyful. The ultimate aim of anyone is to make the world a little more Paradise-like. So fighting against injustice or oppression that causes suffering is not fighting against God’s plan; it is fighting with God to bring His plan to completion, to restore that ‘Paradise’, otherwise we call it ‘the Kingdom of God’.

The suffering caused INSIDE the greater plan of God is for our well-being; for our SALVATION (example: mother scrubbing the mud and filth on the child). Suffering OUSIDE God’s plan is SINFUL (example: the grown-up child among bad company and takes to substance abuse). This has to be resisted and fought.

More examples: Suffering within the plan of God – a child born with birth defects for no fault of the parents. They try to treat the child, but it is no use; it is incurable. We do not have an explanation for such a tragedy, but one has to accept it.

On the other hand, suffering may be outside God’s plan. Most of the injustice that we find in society and the suffering caused as a result of it, are outside God’s plan. This has to be resisted, fought against and eradicated. Then the Kingdom of God will be established.

I would like to end my reflection with the example of Paul, who was also known as Saul. He wanted to eliminate the entire “New Way”. But when Jesus called him, there was a change. Saul became Paul. He started preaching the “New Way” at the cost of suffering, risking even his life. That is true freedom. That is availability. It means readiness to change, and to change in any way that the Lord requires. That is what all the religious and priests are called to become.