We are approaching the Passion of our Lord, this week marks the supreme celebration of the Christian faith, for Catholics no other celebration ranks higher than this; everything central to the Christian faith be it Orthodox, Protestants or even Catholics can deny that in these celebration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection is the epitome of God's love for humanity.
As we begin, the Easter Triduum, - a one large celebration over the span of three days - as Catholics call it, we begin with the Holy Thursday, followed by Good Friday and finally Easter itself. The passionate Christ, shows how a man of dedication and vigour to fulfill what needs to be done i.e. his mission.
Now we often here that passion drives a man to achieve something, we also receive the advice from people to find a job that is both rewarding and a job that we're passionate about; how often do we also hear that passion gives way to two people falling in love for each other. Albeit all of this, how often do we hear that our passion will lead us to our death? This is the case for our Lord. This is the case for all those martyrs and heroes who gave up their lives for others.
Passion is always seen as something for ourselves, something that will invigorate and make us more alive, even to those doing works of charities like NGOs and missionaries, what drives them is how seeing how their work fuels their passion. The result of their labour and dedication produces what they want to see, even so, through their hard work sometimes failure do hurt, despite that they know if they try harder, they will eventually achieve what they aspire to do.
Now we look on to Christ; his Passion redefines the Passion as something new. His Passion was at his own lost, to lose everything that he has or ever had for us. Jesus died knowing that the world wasn't going to change, he died knowing the Jews were still hard-hearted in listening to him, moreover he also knew that by conquering death people might still not believe in Him and His Father. Then again, what gain did Christ himself get as a man? What he got wasn't for himself, rather it was for us. For us to have the hope of eternal salvation and forgiveness; by his sacrifice, we are all brought together as one.
The difference between our passion and the Passion of Christ, is the feeling or the gain of what we get. Our human passion, is mostly for ourselves, no matter how noble sometimes the work can or how much we enjoy it, at the end it is for our own gain; comparatively for Christ, it was not for himself but for all of us, to all of us who believe in Him and providing the hope and way to a better life.
This begs then how are we to follow in Christ's footsteps? To simply put it, when our passion to do something, becomes less for ourselves but more for others, then it is our turn to really experience Christ. This passion that we have like Christ, is a passion that will drive ourselves for the betterment for others; sometimes knowing that others will despise us, mock us, losing certain hope within ourselves or even seeing that this will yield no fruit; yet we continue to carry on - is the Passion similar to Christ.
