Two-Minute Reflection by Anne Frawley-Mangan for Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) 2023.
“God is passionately in love with us and instead of us needing to spill blood to get to God, we have God spilling blood to get to us. That’s real passion.”
- Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Two-Minute Homily Transcript
Author: Archdiocese of BrisbaneJesus passion is not simply what happened on Good Friday. We can’t separate his death from the passion that animated his life. Jesus shows us what he was passionate about, God and God’s passion for justice, love, forgiveness and us. He came to give us life and life to the full. He showed us how to live a fully human life with all the ups and downs. And, suffering is part of being fully human part of living life to the full and it helps us become better versions of ourselves. Now we’ve got two choices with suffering, it can transport us out of pain by giving it to somebody else, “well this is your fault, not mine, I don’t deserve this!”
But even Jesus prayed to God to take this cup away. He didn’t want to die or suffer. Our other choice is to allow the pain to transform us, to sit in the middle of it, feel it. Jesus words take the cup away but I’ll do what you want, if there’s no other way and I must suffer then I’ll do what you want. Jesus trusts that all shall be well in the end. It was the passion of pure love that was happening on the cross. Jesus forgives those who killed him, made fun of him, he didn’t judge them.
On the cross Jesus showed us how to hold the pain and let it transform us, not to pass it on to others around us. Jesus is not changing God’s mind about us, he is changing our mind about God. God is passionately in love with us and instead of us needing to spill blood to get to God, we have God spilling blood to get to us. That’s real passion.