A Sunday Reminder Of The Central Importance of Our Lord's Passion During This Easter Season

Our Easter Season continues. We revel in the glory of the Resurrection. But let's not forget Our Lord's Passion - that which made the Resurrection possible. 

It can be tempting to put the Passion on a back burner during the Easter Season. We want to celebrate life, bask in the possibility of our own eternal life in Heaven, a possibility shown to us in the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ. But, of course, that possibility comes from His Sacrifice - His suffering and death on the Cross.

That Sacrifice must be our Book of Life. It's a lesson we may want to set aside as we celebrate the Resurrection. We don't want that to happen.

So on this Sunday in our glorious Easter Season, here are some words to help us better understand the central importance of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and why the Cross must always be front and center in our lives, day in and day out...

“The Cross of Christ is not merely a reminder of a historical fact; nor is it merely the presentation of a dogmatic truth; nor is it only a revelation of the awful gravity of sin and a warning of the rigors of justice with which it is chastised; it is not even primarily an eloquent plea for gratitude and love. It is, of course, all that, but it is besides, something of yet greater moment. It is above all else a sacrifice, which whilst redeeming mankind, is, at the same time the unfolding of a theory of human existence for the instruction of mankind. It both restores life to man and explains the conditions which underlie that life.
A contemplation of the Passion, no matter how sympathetic it may be, no matter how deeply it may move the emotions, will be in large measure robbed of its fruits, unless it issues for the contemplative in a clear realization and a practical grasp of the lesson the Passion is meant to convey. Each scene of the sufferings of Jesus as it offers itself to the imagination and the thought of the Christian must have, as the permanent background of all, the words that so often reinforced and summarized His ascetical instructions to the people: “Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). The Cross is the symbol of the Christian way of living. It teaches that sacrifice is the essential condition of attaining the good the Savior won for men at the cost of His Precious Blood; and that sacrifice is the lot not only of the Savior, but of the saved as well. The Cross is not only for Christ, it is for the Christian also. The Cross is a sign, as a book is a sign, for men to read. It gives all Christians to understand that the Christian calling demands that each follower of Christ develop in himself that attitude of soul which was Christ’s, and which found its most significant expression in the Passion…”
 

(From Notes of a Retreat given by Archbishop James Leen, C.S.Sp., in 1940)

 

We keep reminding ourselves that we do not leave Our Lord's Passion and Death behind us as we celebrate His Resurrection. While this Holy Season of Easter does not ask us to focus on penance, fasting, almsgiving, Our Lord's Passion and Death remain the mainstays of our spiritual life throughout the year.

Happy Easter!