I stated at the beginning of Lent, that the Paschal Season allows us to focus on the Paschal Mystery at play in our lives. There are three parts to the Paschal Season, namely, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. As much as I bemoan that the only thing left of Palm Sunday anymore, e.g. the blessings of palms and a procession, the fact that this is combined into one Sunday with what once was Passion Sunday is apropos to human life.
The torture and execution of Jesus, and his subsequent resurrection from the dead, plays a major part in the lives of all who have been baptized in Christ. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, spells this out specifically. “Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”
This week is a time to prayerfully reflect on the Passion and Death in our lives. What Passions and Deaths are we currently experiencing? Are we battling a chronic or terminal illness? Have we been seriously injured? Are we suffering the loss of our relationships with others through a falling out, a separation and divorce, a death? Are we currently experiencing betrayals in our lives? Are we suffering from economic worries and losses in our lives? Are we experiencing a sense of God abandoning us during this critical time in our lives and find ourselves crying out with Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Whatever the Passion and Death might be in our lives this year, it is important to know that they were a part of Jesus’ Passion and Death. As the poet Denise Levertov expressed, “One only is ‘King of Grief’.
The onening, she saw, the onening with the Godhead opened Him utterly to the pain of all minds, all bodies, sands of the sea, of the desert – from first beginning to last day. The great wonder is that the human cells of His flesh and bone didn’t explode when utmost Imagination rose in that flood of knowledge.” Jesus assumed our Passions and Deaths at his death, so that we may rise with him on Easter at his resurrection.
