The passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part XIII

Christ died for us while we are still sinners.

  Jesus died for us sinners, giving us the inheritance of God's Kingdom. God makes no distinction in selecting and choosing the most favorable in His view.  ‘When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless. You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die. So it is proof of god’s own love for us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (Rom. 5: 6-8) He has demonstrated His never-ending unconditional love for us by offering Jesus' body as a live sacrifice to God. The Lord has showed us salvation through the measure of trust in Jesus Christ. We can't find someone who died for sinners or adversaries, but Jesus died for us despite our sins Romans 3:25–26 (NJB): God appointed him as a sacrifice for reconciliation, through faith, by the shedding of his blood, and so showed his justness; first for the past, when sins went unpunished because he held his hand; 26 and now again for the present age, to show how he is just and justifies everyone who has faith in Jesus. Jesus is seeking our unshakeable faith in him. He died so that we could reconcile with God. 

   Jesus died so that we could all be saved for eternity. Jesus transformed the disgrace of the Cross into a symbol of its exaltation by sacrificing his life on it. This way, Christ glorified the Father's love in our midst. 14 For the love of Christ overwhelms us when we consider that if one man died for all, then all have died; 15 his purpose in dying for all humanity was that those who live should live not any more for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life. 2Cor 5:14-15.

  In the Bible, Jesus, the Son of God, is repeatedly mentioned by the Heavenly Father. LK. 3: 21-22, 21 Now it happened that when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son; today have I fathered you.' Whether we were baptized as infants or as adults in the Church, we received the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

The Passion of Christ

 

Passion of Christ Part XII

Tear your hearts not your clothes 

   God relented because Moses pleaded to our Lord. In this lent season we should pray to our lord for forgiveness of our sins. Exodus 32:11–14 (NJB): Moses tried to pacify Yahweh his God. ‘Yahweh,’ he said, ‘why should your anger blaze at your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt by your great power and mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, “He brought them out with evil intention, to slaughter them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth?” Give up your burning wrath; relent over this disaster intended for your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you swore by your very self and made this promise: “I shall make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and this whole country of which I have spoken, I shall give to your descendants, and it will be their heritage for ever.” ’ 14 Yahweh then relented over the disaster which he had intended to inflict on his people. 

   We are so blessed that the Church has given us many seasons and many holidays of obligations to remind us, how to worship our Lord, how we obey His commandments, how we believe in Him and His Eternal presence in Eucharist. Moreover many saints are remembered in the Church Calendar of Feast days. The examinations of our conscience is very important and test ourselves whether we are in His presence or not. Genesis 17:1 (NJB): When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, ‘I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect,  God asked Abraham to be in the presence of God. God relented when Jonah preached the Word of our Lord to the Ninevites. Jonah 3:4–10 (NJB): Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city and then proclaimed, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ 5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. 7 He then had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: ‘No person or animal, herd or flock, may eat anything; they may not graze, they may not drink any water. 8 All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil ways and violent behaviour. 9 Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath, so that we shall not perish.’ 10 God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it. Why because the people of Nineveh repented and the king proclaimed and declared fasting for forty days along with the citizens of the country. 

  We should tear heart or should have or deep repentance to overcome our misdeeds and sins. Cry to our Lord to get forgiveness for our sins. He will pour on us  His mercy and grace to believe in Him. Joel 2:13 (NJB): Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster.

The Passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part XI

Jesus was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt

 Jesus was born and raised in an extremely tough environment, and he was despised and rejected by everyone but saved loved by his own parents. They provided him with the strength to survive in today's environment. He was not an attractive person, but he was a perfect lamb. He was a man of sorrows because he understood he was the sacrificial lamb. Priests, Romans, Jews, and his own people all humiliated him to the utmost extent. He was well-known for bearing all of his suffering with grace and praying for his persecutors. Ours were the hardships and sins he bore in order to lead us to salvation.  Isaiah 53:2–5 (NJB): Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts; 3 he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard. 4 Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; 5 whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed. Only because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises. We are not looking into Christ's eyes; we are all averting our attention. We all believed he was chastised and afflicted by God. He lacked charm. We were all saved by his punishment, and the suffering and pain on his body cured us. 

The Passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part X

‘A sword will pierce your soul too’ 

  The prophecy of Simeon, Luke 2:34–35 (NJB): 34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed— 35 and a sword will pierce your soul too—so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.’ I was just reflecting about Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. How Mother Mary waited all these years to allow her son to be sacrificed. Simeon prophesied that the sword would pierce Mother Mary's heart. She was expecting this and spiritually preparing to accept Jesus' death on the Cross according to Heavenly Father's plan. 

  I went to Mount Malayatoor in 2010 for a personal retreat to be alone with Jesus Christ. While hiking the mountain in one day, during the meditation on the Way of the Cross. I paused near the 13th Station on this mountain. The lifeless body of Jesus lay on Mother Mary's lap, and I glanced at her face. I sensed she was quite relaxed since her Son had fulfilled His task, which Heavenly Father had endured for the sake of all humanity, namely the salvation of all humanity.

  After Jesus' death, Mother Mary was overjoyed when she accepted his dead corpse on her lap with the assistance of John and other female friends. Pieta, a stunning sculpture by Michelangelo, commemorates this incident. The torment of passion was ended according to Heavenly Fathers' plan; otherwise, Salvation and the Most Holy Sacrifice were completed, and she is now enjoying the heavenly happiness that she was experiencing with angels and saints by defeating Satan and his companions by shedding Jesus' own blood; not only her son, but also Heavenly Fathers' own Son. A few minutes before, in a human way, I was thinking about the sorrowful element of Christ's passion on the cross. The world was thinking differently, as they imagined how Christ would die on the Cross, maybe saving himself and avoiding the death penalty. Matthew 16:22 (NJB): Then, taking him aside,  Peter started to rebuke him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord,’ he said, ‘this must not happen to you.’ Even Peter also does not understand the redemptive value of this Eternal Sacrifice at first sense the death of Jesus on the Cross. Matthew 16:23 (NJB): 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.’ The passion and death of Jesus Christ have the greatest redemptive value for the past, present, and future of all living beings. It was the Heavenly Father's plan, which He determined after Adam and Eve committed sin. He was also happy with Abraham's offering of his own son as a living sacrifice, as he had asked for. Abraham gained God's heart, which strengthened God's desire to bring His only Son to the earth and offer him as a live sacrifice for our sins. 

   Mother Mary, who was uniquely chosen by God the Father to be the Mother of His only begotten Son, must endure all of Christ's passions and our Lord's redemptive plan as part of this redemption. She is a co-redemptorist in the mystery of salvation. She was aware of all of the Heavenly Father's mysteries and plans, and she carried the sorrow and suffering from the birth of Child Jesus until his death on the Cross. Let us fulfil Jesus Christ's mission, which he has explicitly given to all of us. 

The Passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part IX

If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

  John 12:5–8 (NJB): Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’  6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents. 7 So Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.’ Here, Judas Escariot complains about the ointment with which St Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus. He is questioning why spending so much money to show respect to Jesus when you might sell it and donate it to the poor. His purpose was not to give this money to the impoverished, but to keep a portion of it for personal use. Jesus foresaw his suffering and death on the Cross, therefore he told let her use it for his burial. What a wonderful devotion and love he showed this unfortunate person for her deed of love and respect.

  Is 50: 7-9, Lord Yahweh comes to my help, this is why insult has not touched me, this is why I have set my face like flint and know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He who grants me saving justice is near! Who will bring a case against me? Let us appear in court together! Who has a case against me? Let him approach me! 9 Look, Lord Yahweh is coming to my help! Who dares condemn me? Look at them, all falling apart like moth-eaten clothes! Jesus is requesting his Father for help, and he is confident that his Father would not abandon him. There was no evidence that he deserved punishment. Jesus is suggesting that everyone will break apart on their own due to their improper vices, unclean practices, and wicked ways. 

  Matthew 16:24–25 (NJB): If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus is calling us to follow him by carrying our own crosses, surrender ourselves, and abandon all the conveniences of our modern world. Even if we sacrifice our life for Christ, it is a blessing. You are aware that the 21 Egyptian martyrs killed in Libya by the Islamic State were all willing to accept the cross for the sake of Jesus. They never lose trust in Jesus our Lord. The persecutors asked them to abandon their Christian beliefs and convert to Islam. They accepted death for the sake of God and became martyrs. What a magnificent faith these victims possessed, which we can all experience in this twenty-first century. Their example of the martyrdom makes us to keep our enthusiasm for the faith in Jesus and sacrifice ourselves for his kingdom. 

  

The Passion of Christ

 

Passion of Christ Part VIII

Jesus was never turned away from the insults and spitting

  Jesus was rejected by everyone, and he thought he had been removed from the Father's presence. Jesus' passion began at birth, and he thought he was finished, with no more power to bear all of his afflictions alone. The adversary floods around him all day and night, stabbing him with whips and lances to give him the maximum punishment on earth than anybody else in this world..  Psalm 88:14–18 (NJB): 14 why, Yahweh, do you rebuff me, turn your face away from me? 15 Wretched and close to death since childhood, I have borne your terrors—I am finished! 16 Your anger has overwhelmed me, your terrors annihilated me. 17 They flood around me all day long, close in on me all at once. 18 You have deprived me of friends and companions, and all that I know is the dark. Jesus was taken away from all his friends and companions. A great passion and death is very inevitable for him. He felt the darkness everywhere as the heavenly light has taken away from him as a fulfillement of the will of Heavenly Father.  Psalm 38:9–10 (NJB): Lord, all my longing is known to you, my sighing no secret from you, 10 my heart is throbbing, my strength has failed, the light has gone out of my eyes. 

  Isaiah 50:4–10 (NJB): Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple’s tongue, for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary. Morning by morning he makes my ear alert to listen like a disciple. 5 Lord Yahweh has opened my ear and I have not resisted, I have not turned away. 6 I have offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; I have not turned my face away from insult and spitting. Jesus received all of the invisible and visible virtues, nature, and qualities of the Heavenly Father. The soldiers struck Jesus and plucked his beard till blood flowed down his cheeks. He never turned away from all of the punishments and persecutions. Jesus never turned away from the presence of the Heavenly Father. 

The Passion of Christ

Passion of Christ Part VII

‘The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

While we meditate these verses from Psalm 88, here Psalmist is explaining how Jesus was left alone in the dungeon like among the dead. Psalm 88:5–9 (NJB): left alone among the dead, like the slaughtered lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, cut off as they are from your protection. 6 You have plunged me to the bottom of the grave, in the darkness, in the depths; 7 weighted down by your anger, kept low by your waves. Pause 8 You have deprived me of my friends, made me repulsive to them, imprisoned, with no escape; 9 my eyes are worn out with suffering. I call to you, Yahweh, all day, I stretch out my hands to you. Jesus was placed in the pit like a butchered animal, without God's protection. All of his friends and relatives abandoned him, as if they would no longer be with him. He felt like he was in a graveyard where the dead are buried. Jesus sensed that Heavenly Father was furious with him. Jesus felt he had been buried in the grave forever, with no chance of ever living again. But Jesus trusted His Father and was obedient to Him. 

Psalm 49:7–9 (NJB): But no one can ever redeem himself for pay his own ransom to God, 8 the price for himself is too high; it can never be 9 that he will live on for ever. Only Jesus can become the ransom for many of us. What a magnificent sacrifice he made by offering his own life as the greatest sacrifice on earth and in heaven. Another method Christ teaches us how to be leaders is to serve others.When aspiring to be a leader, we must first serve those to whom we belong. Matthew 20:26–28 (NJB): Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, 28 just as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ 

Matthew 20:18–19 (NJB): Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death 19 and will hand him over to the gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised up again.’ I was so moved by hearing on this Antiphone, Communion Antiphon for today on 28th Feb: ‘The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’