Partners in the Passion

GOOD FRIDAY, April 10, 2020. Theme: Partners in the Passion

Good Friday of 2020 has come upon us in a way we could never have imagined when we began the holy Seasons of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 26.  I imagine we all had our Lenten sacrifices planned out back then. And suddenly, just a couple weeks later we received, against our wills, a double-penance of social distancing and sheltering-in restrictions that none of us would have ever wanted to embrace. Along with this came the emotional suffering experienced as panic by some and untamed fears by others.

As difficult and inconvenient as these things are, they can provide us with a connection to Jesus, who in His Passion freely embraced some of our worst human experiences in order to suffer with us.  He endured torture, humiliation, crucifixion and death so that we could see clearly and once for all, how much God truly loves us.  So that we could know that He is a God who does not just look down on us from above, but who rolls up His sleeves – so to speak - and comes down among us as one of us, involved in the messiness and even the suffering of living as a human being.

Because of this solidarity with us, Jesus, God-come-in-the-flesh, has transformed the bad news of suffering into the good news of salvation. He shares the saving power of His Cross with us and he invites each one of us accept this opportunity to offer our sufferings of mind or body or spirit with his. Thus, no Christian need ever say that the pain, the struggle, the suffering we must endure in this world is ever wasted or purposeless.  And so, we have this opportunity available to us on this Good Friday with our present COVID-19 restrictions and deprivations.

We can take these crosses of COVID-19 that have come to us against our wills and transform them into moments of grace and opportunities for blessings.  By doing so, we stop being just victims of present circumstances.  We cease being only spectators of the events of that first Good Friday but become actual participants. We have the spiritual power, right here and now, to become active and willing partners in the Passion of
Christ.

This may not be easy for us to do but it wasn’t easy for Jesus either. Remember how he asked God the Father to remove the chalice of suffering from him during his agony in the garden on the night before he died? And yet he went on in that prayer saying, “but not my will, rather, yours be done.” And when he hung upon the cross, beaten, bruised and bleeding, he did not whine or complain but instead offered words of encouragement to those who were suffering. We can do the same by his grace and power.

In our Catholic Christian tradition, we have a phrase that describes this intentional and mindful participation in the Passion of Jesus. It is called “redemptive suffering”. What this means is that no matter what burdens we have to endure in mind, body or spirit; no matter what life throws at us or in what situations we find ourselves, these sufferings do not have the last word. Through, with and in Christ crucified, we have the upper hand…IF we choose to unite them to the Passion of Christ and make these difficulties a gift, an offering of love.

So, during prayer in our homes this Good Friday, as we venerate the holy and life-giving Cross of Jesus as we would if we were gathered together at our parish church, let’s choose to become Partners in the Passion by…

Saying “Yes” with Jesus to difficulties that we cannot avoid, transforming what comes to us as a curse into a blessing…

Saying “Yes” with Jesus to the chalices of suffering that come our way, empowering us to join with Jesus in bringing many blessings and graces to the world.

Saying “Yes” with Jesus in our struggles so that with hearts motivated by love for God and neighbor, we might become with our Beloved Brother and Lord, co-redeemers of humanity.  On this good Friday –and always – may the Passion of Christ be forever in our hearts!