Passion is an intense word that today conjures images of a compelling, romantic force such as the one that drove star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide. In the modern world, it is easy to forget that the word passion has much more ancient roots than that, coming from the Latin verb pati, which translates into English as to suffer. The essence of passion is suffering, and passion only ended up being associated with love because love often results in some amount of suffering.
This older definition of passion as suffering out of love is what medieval playwrights were referring to when they described performances depicting the death of Jesus as Passion plays and that Mel Gibson’s more contemporary Passion of the Christ offers homage to. Such performances provide a visual reminder of the pain Jesus endured on the cross out of a loving desire to save all of humanity. When we see the nails pierce Christ’s flesh, we realize that it is our sin cutting into His skin. While we watch the blood pour out of His broken body, we know that it is His blood that cleanses us. We recognize that He is giving His body to His beloved bride, the Church He established on Earth. We have all the proof we could ever need that the heart of passion isn’t about getting; it’s about giving: giving love, hope, and inspiration. Too often as fallen creatures we look to loved ones to sacrifice on our behalf or boost our sprits when the truth is that love is more about sharing all of us—sweat, body, soul, blood, and heart—with someone else. That someone else can be Christ but it can also be anyone else in the entire world and all of human history for whom He willingly gave His life to save.
Even centuries removed from the grim day, Christ’s death is difficult and hurtful to contemplate, but the pain we feel is a healing one. It’s the anguish that comes from being reminded of how much suffering our sins caused Jesus, the God Who loves us more than anybody else possibly could. To weep over Christ’s wounds is to know that you inflicted this pain upon Him, but it is also to be overcome by the loving truth that if you were the only person who ever existed, Jesus would still choose to die on the cross to save you from your sins, because that is how deeply committed Christ is to reuniting all of us to Himself in Heaven, although that rocky road—commemorated in the Way of the Cross–– to reunion was laden with agony for our Savior.
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