The Gospel reading last Sunday, Palm Sunday, was about a tragic story filled with so much blood, violence, deceit, and death on a cross. It was the story of Christ’s sacrifice. A tragic story if we will look at it from our own perspective because it was a story of a Man who suffered much just to fulfill his noble mission of saving humanity from its slavery to darkness, death, and sin.
However, for God, it was a love story because it presents to us the never-fading love that God has in store for all of us. A true love story because it takes joy in one’s self-giving for the sake of the well-being of the beloved. Indeed, an agape because it is a total sharing of life so that others may have life just the same.
The Passion of Jesus is not Godly because, as God, He needed not the punishment and die on the Cross painfully like criminals do for their crimes. It is not for God to be clothed with our human nature just to save us because He has the fullness of power being the Creator of heaven and earth. He can save us in just a wink of an eye without his Son undergoing all the punishment that has been inflicted on Him. The people were expectant of a Messiah who has the power to liberate them from their slavery oozing with power and magnificence.
The passion of Christ is not a tragedy per se because it is a love story that ended, not in a tragic way, but rather in a triumphal fashion. It was His mission, and He did it even if it pained much the heart of Mary, his mother. She knew in her heart that this time had to happen and that she had no reason to object lest the salvific plan be jeopardized. It is a love story of a lover who never ceased to woo his beloved even if she turned her back on Him so many times. It is a story that shows concretely the immense love that God has for us. A love story far beyond the kind of love that we humans are capable of.
The passion of Christ is a message for all of us that we need to let go and soar above the mediocrity of our worldly fashion. The passion of Christ gives us life eternal, and the fashion of the world offers us eternal damnation. Let us give meaning in our celebration of the Holy Week this year because this is what the entire world needs… a need that has been long-delayed and a need that is the answer to every question that we have and a remedy to all problems that we are facing. That need is nothing else but our need to answer God’s call positively for us to be holy and be stewards of all that he has entrusted to us. All is not lost, however, we are required to give much of ourselves, if not our whole self, to God for some positive changes to happen. Self-centeredness is what drives us out of God’s loving embrace and our self-emptying is the only way to restore us into being His chosen ones, His beloved. Only through our cooperation with God’s grace will these things have a significant effect in our lives.
Have a Blessed and Prayerful Holy Week!