A Passion for the Passion of Jesus Christ

A passion for the Passion of Jesus Christ is a great way to advance spiritually. The great spiritual masters tell us that there are  three levels of spirituality – The Purgative Way (The beginner spirituality), the Illuminative Way (adolescent spirituality), and the Unitive Way (mature adulthood spirituality).  A lot of us are somewhere between the Purgative Way and the Illuminative Way.  In other words, we say mainly rote prayers from memory, go to Mass on Sunday, go to confession occasionally, and then we go out into the world to enjoy its many pleasures, while struggling to be good Christians. There is nothing wrong with this per se, but for those who want more, meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ, from the Garden of Gethsemane to His death on the Cross, is one of the best ways to advance spiritually.

The Rosary

The Rosary gives us the Sorrowful Mysteries of Jesus on which to meditate:

• The Agony in the Garden
• The Scourging at the Pillar
• The Crowning with Thorns
• The Carrying of the Cross
• The Crucifixion.

It’s always good to think about the depression that Jesus went through in the garden, the bodily pain of the scourging, the mental pain of the crowning with thorns, the burden of carrying a heavy cross up a hill to his death, and the three hours of thirst, physical pain, and embarrassment of being crucified naked in front of everyone.

To go to the next level of spirituality, we should try to unite the sufferings of Jesus with our own.  Most of us suffer from depression from time to time. We have all suffered bodily. We all have had very troubling thoughts. We all have to carry a heavy burden of something in our lives. And our death will also be most unpleasant, although not as bad as being crucified.

Uniting our sufferings with His Passion alleviates a lot of our pain, because we are making those past events spiritually present to us now, and the unlimited graces from His sufferings will then help us to keep on going through life, instead of giving up. It always helps to know that Jesus went through the pain we are going through. It also is very hard to continue sinning if we meditate on His Passion often.

The Fourteen Stations of the Cross

• Pilate Condemns Jesus
• Jesus Takes Up His Cross
• Jesus Falls the First Time
• Jesus Meets His Mother
• Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
• Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
• Jesus Falls the Second Time
• Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
• Jesus Falls the Third Time
• Jesus is Stripped of His Garments
• Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
• Jesus Dies on the Cross
• Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
• Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

There are some interesting things to meditate on in the stations:

• Jesus, the Lamb of God, wore a crown of thorns on his head. At Mount Moriah, Isaac was not sacrificed by Abraham, because a ram (a male sheep) took his place, found with his head caught in a thicket of thorns.
• Jesus, the new Adam, was clothed and stripped naked. Adam was naked and then was clothed after his original sin.
• Man caused God (Jesus) to fall down in the dust of Jerusalem, with the goal of taking the breath of life out of him. In Eden, God lifted man out of the dust in order to blow the breath of life into him.
• Jesus was killed with the tools of his trade as a carpenter – a hammer, wood, and nails.
• Just as Eve became the physical mother of all of the living at the foot of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Mary became the spiritual mother of all of the living at the foot of the tree of life known as the cross.
• Jesus was laid in a tomb where no one had been buried before, and that tomb gave birth to the resurrected Christ. At Bethlehem, Jesus was incarnated in the womb of Mary, which had not been occupied by a baby before, and that womb gave birth to the God-Man, Jesus

Additionally, there are also many lessons for us to apply to ourselves when we meditate on these.  For instance:

• When we are unjustly accused of something we didn’t do, do we pray for our enemy, or do we scream and demand our rights, while plotting our revenge on the accuser?
• When we fall down because of pain and misfortune, do we get back up again and try harder?
• Do we ask for help from others in our struggles, or do we ignore the Simons out there who can help us carry our cross (doctors, priests, psychiatrists, spouses, etc.)?
• When we are facing our enemies who seemingly have the upper hand on us, do we hate them with every fiber of our being, or do we pray for them in silence to be converted, like Jesus did?
• When we are stripped of our finances, our loved ones, or our jobs, do we commit our spirits and our lives to Jesus, so that He can handle our problems?
• Do we take Mary into our homes as the beloved disciple did (because we also are beloved disciples of Jesus!)?

If Jesus is truly our Lord, then we should try to imitate Him always, because no servant is greater than his Master. We should not just be His fans, sitting on the sidelines in admiration of Him; rather, we should be in the game with Him, helping Him to carry His cross through our own suffering, our faith, and good works done in His name.

The Mass 

I never used to meditate on the Passion of Jesus during Mass. The crucifix was so familiar to me, that it had lost its meaning. But now, I try to meditate on His Passion at every Mass, thanking Him for doing all of that for ME.  It is true to say that Jesus died for the sins of mankind, but it is truer to say that He suffered and died for the sins of each one of us individually. If you and I were the only persons who He ever created, He would have still undergone all of that suffering just for us.

It’s so easy to blame the corrupt Pharisees and the pagan Romans for teaming up to torture and kill Jesus, but in all fairness to them, they truly did not know that Jesus is God. We Christians, however, do know that Jesus is God, and yet, we add another thorn to His crown every time we sin, and when we commit a mortal sin, we are telling Him that we prefer the devil to Him. So, in a way, we who are Christians today are worse than the Pharisees and the Romans ever were, because we know without a doubt that Jesus is God, and yet, we act like we don’t care about that at all because of our habitual sinful lifestyle and unwillingness to repent.

Going to Mass without meditating on the Passion is definitely fulfilling our Sunday obligation, but we stifle the graces we could be receiving by not pondering on his pain and suffering, done for OUR salvation!  No one would go to a fiftieth wedding anniversary party without reflecting on the past events in the lives of the married couple. Similarly, we should never go to Mass without meditating on the pain and suffering of Christ, which opened up the gates of heaven for us all, thus saving us from the  fires of hell. This meditation blocks the devil’s attempts to negatively affect our imagination, thus strengthening our faith in Jesus.

What the Saints Say

St. Bonaventure:

“He who desires to go on advancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus. There is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”

St. Augustine:

“A single tear shed at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus is worth more than a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or a year of fasting on bread and water.”

St. Paul of the Cross:

“The remembrance of the most holy Passion of Jesus Christ is the door through which the soul enters into intimate union with God, interior recollection and most sublime contemplation.”

“The most holy Passion of Jesus Christ is the most efficacious means to convert obstinate sinners.”

“The holy sufferings of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also a sea of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this sea. Immerse yourself in it, and, no matter how deeply you go, you will never reach the bottom. Allow yourself to be penetrated with love and sorrow. In this way you will make the sufferings of the gentle Jesus your own. Fish for the pearls of the virtues of Jesus. This holy fishing is done without words.”  (Emphasis added)

St. Alphonsus Liguori:

“Our time is no time for fear as we are witnesses of a God who gave up His own life out of love for us. The Passion of Jesus was an excess of the love of God, so anyone who meditates on it, will follow Him to the end.”

“If you wish to advance in your spiritual life, think of the Lord’s sufferings every day, because by thinking of It, it is impossible not to be overwhelmed with love capable of making other effects relative when compared to His own, and strength to overcome with joy the inevitable burdens and trials of life.” (Emphases added)

Private Revelation

Jesus to St. Melchtilde:

“Dreadful were the torments I experienced at the crucifixion, but inexpressible were My tortures when My Body was so frightfully distended that all My bones could be numbered. If anyone thanks Me for this suffering, he renders Me as great a service as if he had anointed all My wounds. Whoever thanks Me for the thirst I endured, I accept it from him as if he had quenched My thirst.”

Jesus to St. Gertrude

“Every time one kisses the crucifix, or looks at it with devotion, the eye of God’s mercy is fixed upon his soul. He should then listen within himself to these words of tenderness from Me: Behold how I, for love of thee, hang on the Cross—naked, despised, My whole Body wounded, all My limbs distended. And still My Heart is enkindled with such glowing love for thee, that if it were beneficial for thy salvation and thou couldst not be saved in any other way, I would for thee alone endure all that I suffered for the whole world.”

“There is no remedy more effective against sin than the devout remembrance of My Passion, connected with a true spirit of penance.”

Prayers

“O holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of thy Divine Son for the intention that one mortal sin may be prevented this day (or this night).”

“O Eternal Father, I offer Thee, through the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Precious Blood of Thy Son for the relief of the suffering souls in Purgatory.”

“Hail, Jesus, my most loving Savior! I salute Thee in the ineffable joys of Thy Divinity; I embrace Thee with the affection of the whole creation, and I kiss the sacred Wounds of Thy love. “  (Our Savior assured St. Gertrude that if one recites these words in honor of His Five Holy Wounds, while kissing them devoutly, adding some prayers or good works, and offering them through His sweetest Heart, they will be as acceptable to God as the most arduous devotion.)