Passio Issue #5 – Lent 2020

W elcome to the new look ‘Passio’, the first issue of 2020. This year is a very special one in the history of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ as, from December 2020, Passionists worldwide will begin twelve months of celebrations to mark the tercentenary of their founding by St Paul of the Cross.

The cover of this Lenten issue depicts the ‘Chapel of Christ in Gethsemane’, one of the many outstanding features of Coventry Cathedral. This Chapel reminds us of Jesus’ agony in the garden, prior to his betrayal and arrest. It also tells of the visit of the Angel who held the ‘cup of suffering’ to Christ as He prayed on the night before His crucifixion and death.

Power based on force  is  ultimately fake power.

During Holy Week our thoughts centre, amongst other places, on Gethsemane. In the garden, Peter’s actions can be summed up as sleep, fight and flight (a little later denial can be added). In that same garden, Jesus, in contradistinction, remains vigilant through prayer, exemplifies non-violence and remains faithful to his mission. The Gospels inform us that Peter follows Jesus after his arrest towards the High Priest’s House but at a safe distance, as Jesus permits himself to be handed over and swallowed up by the violence of his Passion.

As we entered 2020, one of the less trumpeted of news headlines concerned sales of arms and military services by the sector’s largest 100 companies (excluding those in China). Such sales totalled $420 billion in 2018, with US companies dominating the top 5 (Lockheed Martin still top of this particularly noxious tree).

Violence – towards others or towards the earth – is not inevitable. The sword can be put back in its scabbard.

This Lent, dare we imagine the world differently? Only in true communion with the Father, that communion which Jesus manifested in his Gethsemane prayer – ‘not my will, but yours be done’ – can we find deep interior peace and draw close to the Lord of love. Will I follow Jesus at a distance, or will I draw as close as the Beloved disciple did when he rested his head on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper and surely, in that intimate gesture, found his truest home?

St. Paul of the Cross reminds us that, ‘the Passion of Christ is the most overwhelming work of God’s love’. The non-violent Jesus is the perfect image and reflection of the non-violent God. Jesus’ final words to his Apostles before his arrest were words of peace. The first words spoken by the Risen Christ were likewise words of peace. That peace which the world so badly needs must begin in our own hearts and flow out from there to the world.

May the Lord bless us with his peace during this holy season.