In Jesus' passion

St Paul of the Cross (1695 – 1775) was utterly convinced that God could be most easily found in the Passion of Jesus. He formed a community of men (and later a community of nuns) that would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Jesus’ Passion. His congregations of men and women are called Passionists.

Such a singular focus could be see to be unhealthy, and it was a reality that Paul had difficulty attracting members because of his congregation’s austerity.

But for you and me, our focus on Jesus’ Passion begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Good Friday. In that time we are deeply challenged to reflect on the efficacy of Jesus’ suffering and death. What it achieved for the first disciples; what it proclaimed to the people of Jerusalem; what it meant for the early Christian communities in Rome, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Galatia, Ephesus, Colossae etc., what it implies for all of creation; and finally how it impacts on me.

When we decide to learn about something, the greater the commitment we have to the learning experience, the greater is our learning. The learning itself can and ought lead to a changed, matured, and fuller understanding of the area of study. For those who chose to read, study and examine the Passion narratives the richness is quite overwhelming. Jesus’ Passion moves well beyond efficacy to transformative and ultimately, salvific. If we allow it, the impact will be extraordinary.

And if this is so, how does it change the way I live and work? Just as for Paul of the Cross, the Passion of Jesus becomes a lens through which I view the world, my behaviour towards others and my actions. If I act like Jesus, I am unselfish, I am full of compassion, I am prepared to carry the pain of those I love, I will share all that I am.

As we enter this final week of our preparation for Easter, I firmly encourage you to see beyond the latter day customs of chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and fluffy bunny rabbits.

A community of Passionist priests and brothers is present in Hobart at St Joseph’s in the city.

Made perfect in him

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Jesus said to his disciples:

 ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.

I have come not to abolish them but to complete them.

 I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, one little stroke,

shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.

Matthew 5:17f

Welcome to a new school year, and in particular those who join our faith and learning community for the first time.

There are public servants whose role it is to comb through old and not so old legislation that needs to be reviewed, updated, repealed or once expired removed from the statute books. It’s a reflection of the changing needs of the community in which we live. Even the law cannot remain static, it is not immutable. The law is dynamic, it responds to whatever concerns are paramount at a given time. We’ve had to accommodate automobiles on our roads, insisted on helmets for cyclists, defended the disabled, legalized abortion, protected great swathes of ancient rainforest. On the other hand, just because we have legislated, of course doesn’t mean the legislation is supported by the entire population, and that it reflects some moral superiority. It doesn’t.

From Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount we hear of Jesus’ affirmation of the validity of the (Mosaic) Law. For the Jews the Law possessed a sacredness which was seen as a sacramental assurance of good relationship with God. The greater the fidelity and attentiveness to the Law, the closer the relationship. Jesus provokes his listeners by suggesting – quite contrarily – that while he had no intention of changing the Law – that the Law was not perfect. Indeed, it was to be him who would bring it to perfection, to fulfillment.

Once, the Christian life for Catholics was governed by a myriad of laws and customs, many of which fell away or at least fell into disuse following the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965) and many of its mores challenged by the apparent and surprising populist rejection of Paul VI’s Humanae vitae in 1968. The modern Catholic wants to make sense of the rules, many find the exclusion of divorcés from the Eucharistic table and the often painful indissolubility of marriage the final chapter of their membership of the church.

We have returned to the scriptures and to the sacred stories and learnings of the earliest Christian communities and we continue to explore what it means to be a Christian in the modern world, what it means to be faithful – but constantly and deeply aware that it is in Jesus that our lives, our world and hope are made perfect in him.