It was under these ovations that Christ made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem a few days before his death, as we will read in the Gospel of this Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday. Today, in addition to the Gospel which speaks to us of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a few days before his death, we will listen to the reading of the passion of Christ, that is to say, the story of his suffering and his death on the cross before his resurrection. And the question I ask myself is how to commemorate the Passion of Christ in the current context of the most horrific violence and killings that have already claimed several million lives in eastern Congo over the past two decades, and that in the greatest silence and culpable indifference of the great number; and especially of the powerful who can put an end to it if they want to.
How do I commemorate the passion of Christ in the current context in Ukraine where the pride and the stubbornness of the great powers which clash by proxy risk to darken the whole humanity in another useless war which we can still avoid… a good part of humanity, flora, and fauna could disappear in a few seconds, because of the madness of a handful of people who can engage the world in a nuclear war, because of their pride and stubbornness, in pursuit of their own selfish interests. How to commemorate the passion of Christ in the context of the Covid19 pandemic which has brought a lot of suffering and pain impacting our lives in different ways…
I feel that today’s Gospel invites me to focus my mind more on Easter, on what I want to live today as freedom from all forms of violence, coercion, and limitation of personal freedoms. , individual or community imposed by current conflicts around the world, as well as this Covid19 pandemic… But it is not only a question of aspiration to this great freedom: freedom of movement, action, or social integration; it is also for me and more, of liberation from any form of moral or spiritual slavery that is identified with sin; that is to say, liberation from all that is contrary to the will of God who wants me to be just, true, charitable, merciful, pure in spirit and body…
When the Church invites me like today to meditate or contemplate the Passion of Christ, it is not to mope in a theatrical pain like when I put on a show and cry to attract pay attention to people or convince myself that I am a sensitive soul; while I lack true compassion towards those who suffer around me; while I feel no sincere contrition for this sin which I have long harbored and in which I endure and delight… true compassion and deep contrition are expressed in true gestures and words of love and forgiveness. By asking me to meditate on the Passion of Christ, the Church does not ask me to dwell on the suffering either, as if I were trying to eroticize the pain,… no, it is not a question of eroticizing the pain… there are those who, because they have been wounded, find in their inner wound an object of spiritual eroticism… they or they refuse to heal this wound, to turn the page, as if each time, thinking to the wound, they or they seek there to find some satisfaction, even spiritual… one can use one’s own suffering or one’s pains that one maintains to hurt others or take revenge…
Suffering or pain in itself, or for itself, is not something good, good, beautiful…on the contrary, it is to be fought in all its forms since Scripture tells us that in the beginning, when God saw the work of his creation, he said that: all was good (Gn 1:31). If God allows suffering in my life, he does not want it for me…he wants me happy, at peace, without pain or suffering (Dt 4:40). If he allows suffering in my life, it is not the end of my life; since in the end, he wants me to be happy with him in paradise! He allows it, among other things, so that by going through it like Christ who lived his passion in his flesh and in his spirit, I learn to strip myself enough, to strip myself of my pride, of my EGO… to be able to say every day like Jesus on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit! “. (Luke 23:46).
Since he is the Father who alone can give me through Jesus Christ the true life, the true happiness that the riches and honors of this passing world will never give; since he is the only one who gives resurrection and eternal life to those who accept to live the present life in the hope of the resurrection and in fidelity to the commandment of love of Christ.
Lord by your Passion and your resurrection you teach me that despite everything that I am going through that is difficult, painful, sorrowful, sad… I must always hope that Easter is on the horizon. That on the cross, life triumphs over death, Peace triumphs over war, Good has conquered evil… you have conquered Satan by your total abandonment to the Father. Teach me the true meaning of suffering and pain in my life. Jesus, I trust in you. AMEN!
Fr. Isango Tryphon SJ
In the Chapel of the Holy Name AJU