The Matter of the Passion
I once heard a priest preach that Jesus was nothing more than a common criminal and that His Passion was simply the result of His opposition to the religious and political powers of the time. Though there was likely a deeper meaning behind what he was saying, the sermon certainly created some mumblings during and after his remarks. A recent article also posed similar ideas, though the author’s conclusion emphasized more clearly the shocking contrast between what Jesus physically suffered for his earthly actions and what He spiritually achieved through His divine power. These thoughts made me reflect on the possibility that for the historical figure of Jesus, the events of the Passion can be seen as nothing more than the natural consequences of His earthly actions. However, from a theological perspective, through Him being the Son of God, the matter of the Passion took on a divine form. Similarly, our ordinary actions and sufferings can take on a supernatural significance, when we allow Jesus to enter into them with us.
From a worldly viewpoint, Jesus can seem to be just a common criminal. Without any theological understanding, the mission of Jesus can appear to be a complete failure. He did not destroy and rebuild the temple, He did not overthrow the Romans, and He did not rule in a kingdom on earth. Some could conclude that He was no more than a significant moral teacher who met His end because He upset the wrong crowd. However, in response to this, C.S. Lewis states that we cannot believe that Jesus was just a wise man; either He is a lunatic, a liar, or He is the Lord that she says He is. However, He was not a lunatic because He spoke and acted coherently, and He was not a liar because He gained nothing from what He said. Therefore, it comes to reason that He is who He says He is. As such, we cannot believe that Jesus was just a common criminal.
Certainly, the Passion was ordained by God. It was prophesied throughout the Old Testament and foretold by Jesus Himself. However, St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica III.46, claims that it actually was not naturally or compulsorily necessary. Rather, it was, in the words of St. Augustine, “good and befitting” that our salvation come through Jesus’ Passion. Additionally, Aquinas lists five reasons — besides our deliverance from sin — of why the Passion was the best means for our salvation:
“[because] man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love Him in return; because thereby He set us an example of obedience, humility, constancy, justice, and the other virtues displayed in the Passion, which are requisite for man’s salvation; because Christ by His Passion not only delivered man from sin, but also merited justifying grace for him and the glory of bliss; because by this man is all the more bound to refrain from sin; because it redounded to man’s greater dignity, that as man was overcome and deceived by the devil, so also it should be a man that should overthrow the devil; and as man deserved death, so a man by dying should vanquish death.” (ST III.46.3)
In the remaining articles of the question, he goes on to explain the totality with which Jesus suffered. Through Aquinas’s reasoning, we can understand how the Passion, though it did not have to occur, was ordained by God as the best means for our salvation.
Nonetheless, the people of the time, including the disciples, did not fully understand the depth of the Passion. In those days, it was likely thought that Jesus met His end simply because He made the claim that He is the Son of God. As such, He was condemned to punishment for His threatening of the Pharisees and the Romans. This explains why so many of the disciples were distraught after Jesus’ death. Of course, if they believed that He would overthrow the Romans and establish His kingdom on earth, they would be disillusioned after His death. Too, they were likely disoriented about what to do with their lives after having dedicating themselves to follow Jesus for three years. We ought to reflect on these sentiments of the first disciples, as we too may often experience them in our own modern ways (as described in “A Reflection Upon Entering Holy Week” and “When It Is All Said and Done”).
Likewise, we can fail to see how God is working in our own daily lives. At times, we may have gotten ourselves into certain bad situations or tragedies may have occurred from an external force. Either way, in the midst of carrying our own burdens, it can be difficult to see how God can shape the matter of our crosses into a divine form. Too, in our lives, we may not have any grand callings or miraculous encounters. However, just the same, God wants to enter into the mundane realities of our lives to bring about our salvation.
Additionally, Jesus invited us to participate in our own salvation and that of the whole world by surrendering the events of our lives to God. The reality of the human condition is that the present circumstances of our lives are God’s providential will for us; no matter what they be, His calling for us is to surrender our circumstances to Him (as referenced in “The Gift of the Cross: A Gift to Fill That Which is Lacking”). The more that we open ourselves up to God in every moment, the more that He is able to enter into and transform our lives (as emphasized in “Pase lo que pase, Immanu’el”). Further, when we unite our sufferings to those of Jesus, they take on a redemptive power (as highlighted in “In Atonement for Our Sins and Those of the Whole World: Offering Suffering as Reparation for the Misuse of Free Will”). As such, the more that we are able to surrender our lives to God, the more that He will be able to help the matter of our lives take on a divine form.
However, Jesus cannot do this unless we invite Him into our current conditions. Learning to do so is at the heart of the Christian journey. Often, we can fall into believing the lies of the world that we are not good, that our pasts are shameful, or that our future is hopeless; instead, we ought to let Him remind us that we are sons and daughters of God (“Who Told You That You Were Naked?”). Too, we can fail to see meaning in our sufferings; but, we ought to open ourselves to receiving His grace hidden in our daily crosses (“Behold the Cross”). At times, God can seem absent; however, we ought to seek Him in the desolation because it was through the silence that He brought about the world’s salvation (“In the Hush of Easter”). Lastly, though the world can be confusing and distracting, we ought ask Him to help us carry the joy and hope of Easter into each and every of our interactions (“Empty Churches and the Empty Sepulcher”). No matter what, we ought to live with the spirit that, as Pope St. John Paul II said, “we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.”
Historically, Jesus can seem to be no more than a criminal with some radical teachings. However, if we are able to see how He was neither a lunatic or a liar, we can understand how He, as the son of God, took the matter of the Passion and gave it a divine form. Likewise, the events of our lives may seem mundane or shameful at times. However, the more that we invite Jesus into every moment of our lives, the more He can transform us into His divine image. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
“The Word became flesh to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’: ‘For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.’ ‘For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.’ ‘The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.’” (CCC 460)
