Our Faith Comes Down to Passion Week

Colleen Mallette explores the basis of our Catholic faith in Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

The culmination of our Lenten season is this Passion Week of Jesus. Every year we strive for 40 days to live a repentant, spiritually enriching time to grow and prepare our hearts for the glory of Easter morning. Reliving the events of Jesus’ last week leading up to Easter is important for us as we try to grasp and appreciate the sacrifice He made on our behalf. The Resurrection of Jesus is the basis of our Catholic faith: it is what started our Church and caused it to spread so rapidly.

We were not there when Jesus was arrested, tortured, hung on a cross, and suffered terribly for us. But those who were there were so transformed by this week of events that they were willing to die for their faith. The Apostles believed Jesus was the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah (Mark 8:29), and this belief was truly solidified after they witnessed the Resurrected Savior. They immediately went out and boldly told everyone they met all that they knew about their beloved Messiah (Acts 2:40-41).

In the Word On Fire Bible, Bishop Robert Barron reflects on the Gospel of Matthew (page 166:

The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith … If Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if He did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives. There is no third option. (166)

Just as the apostles realized Jesus’ Resurrection was real and amazing, God desires this same fire inside of us. We shouldn’t be able to keep from talking about Jesus and all He did for us. His love should be a part of everything we do and say.

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As we relive the Stations of the Cross one last time this week, try to put yourself in each of the scenes and let the events fill your heart with love and gratitude to Jesus. Maybe stay with one of the Stations that really affects you. Apply a lesson from God in that step to more fully absorb what a sacrifice of love Jesus went through.

One of the most striking lines from all of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Passion is when He says from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). I feel He was talking to me when I, knowingly and unknowingly, sin against Him and it makes me sad. I feel responsible for His awful death. But it is also an inspiration to be more forgiving to those who sin against me, either on purpose or not.

If, in His agony, Jesus could forgive those who persecuted Him so terribly, then I should be able to forgive others. He was also asking His Father to forgive us all of our sins for which He was hanging on the cross as the Perfect Lamb of final sacrifice, and I can never thank Him enough for that.

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We shouldn’t be able to keep from talking about Jesus and all He did for us. His love should be a part of everything we do and say. #CatholicMom

In the Bible in a Year podcast, Fr. Mike Schmitz said in his review of Matthew’s account of the Passion, “Jesus’ depth of love that saves us is greater than the depth of His sacrifice.”

We cannot even fathom the depth of God’s love for every human being across time and place. We are incapable of that level of agape love; it is a mystery to us. Yet we can be thankful for what we can perceive and understand. We can thank God through our prayers, our honoring Him in worship (especially this Sunday!), and by striving to live holy even after Lent is over.

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