The Passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part I

We are dust, the dust shall we return(Sir 41:10)

  Today, we going to start the Lent in the universal church and it is the time for reconciliation with our Lord.The suffering of Jesus has started from the time of his birth. Joseph has tried very hard to get a place for his wife Mary to give birth of Baby Jesus.  Luke 2:7 (NJB): and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space. There was no room found for Mary to give birth to Jesus. Instead she laid Baby Jesus in a manger of the cattles. 

   After the birth of Jesus the Holy Family was not free from suffering. They were left their home country and left for Egypt along with the Baby Jesus as they guided by the angel of the Lord to avoid his before the time fulfilled. Matthew 2:13–18 (NJB): After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ 14 So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt.16 Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. 17 Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18 A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. All the male infants in Israel and Palestine were killed by King Herod. Jesus was protected by God and sent him to a safe place in Egypt. 

  Jesus lived with his parents, Mary and Joseph, until he began his public mission. He began his ministry by preaching, casting out evil, and healing the sick. He performed many miracles, yet the people did not believed in him. Jesus was greatly troubled as he realized his time to be crucified was approaching. He expresses this from his wounded heart: John 12:27 (NJB): Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it is for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Jesus was waiting for this hour to become the sacrifice for all humanity.