Passion of Jesus

The climax of Jesus' passion

The Passion of Jesus (from Latin patior, "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy Week.

Quotes

• I remember that once, while meditating on the Passion, a thought formed in my mind with great clarity, almost without my knowing it: “The crucifiers of Christ were saved!” I began to reflect on what such a strange thought could mean and came to the conclusion that it was true. The crucifiers of Christ were saved because Jesus prayed for them. Just as they were nailing him to the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Can we imagine that the Father, who had “always” listened to Jesus' prayers during his life, would have ignored this supreme prayer, made with such determination? Of course, even in this case, man's freedom to accept or reject mercy remains. However, we cannot be certain that anyone is lost, not even Judas. Yes, Christ's crucifiers are in heaven; there they proclaim eternally the extent of God's mercy for mankind.

• Raniero Cantalamessa, Gettate le reti. Riflessioni sui vangeli, Piemme, Casale Monferrato, 2001. ISBN 88-384-9498-3 (in Italian).

• To prevent the heresy of heretics who deny his true humanity, Jesus Christ wanted to subject himself to our miseries; he wanted to feel hunger, thirst, and fatigue; close to death, he showed repugnance and anguish. In short, he wanted to suffer as a man to convince us that he was also a true man.

• John Chrysostom, Homilies, in AAVV, Liturgia horarum iuxta ritum Romanum, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, ed. italiana, Roma, 1972 (in Latin).

• I am not at all surprised that the Passion has been declared an excess. And in fact, it is an excess of love on the part of Jesus Christ.

• Claude de la Colombière, Il libro dell'interiorità. Scritti spirituali, Giandomenico Mucci (editor), translated into Italian by Sesto Quercetti, Città Nuova, Roma, 1992. ISBN 88-311-4045-0

• When the Devil sees that God bends down to a man to show him mercy, to give him relief from his passions either through his word or through one of his servants, he oppresses him even more under the weight of passion and attacks him with greater force.

• Dorotheus of Gaza, Insegnamenti spirituali, translation into Italian by Maurizio Paparozzi, Citta Nuova, 1976.

• The Passion is a poem of charity, humiliation, and power. No compromise, no timidity, no backing down. Threats do not move him, flattery does not flatter him: the cross is already grasped in his will, fused with the will of the Father. He who, by his name alone, terrifies the mob led by the traitor, rejects the heavenly legions and the comfort of the apostles and walks alone toward Calvary. The Lamb teaches us fortitude, the humiliated give us lessons in dignity, the condemned exalt justice, the dying confirm life, the crucified prepare glory.
  Our Easter witness cannot be any different. If each of us who believes in the Resurrection of Jesus were to keep faith with him before the world, which has lost the true meaning of strength and glory, with a firm and bold face, no one would dare to speak of the Gospel as a “servile” religion.

• Primo Mazzolari, Testimonianza pasquale, in La vita cattolica, 22 March 1940; reprinted in Con libertà e audacia apostolica: la collaborazione con «La vita cattolica» di Cremona, Giuseppina Cavrotti (editor), AVE, Roma, 2013; reported in La Pasqua, Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna, Bologna, 2017, p. 19. ISBN 9788810964491 (in Italian).

• Yes, Jesus Christ could have freed himself from the hands of the Jews and Pontius Pilate, but knowing that it was the will of his Eternal Father that he suffer and die for our salvation, he submitted himself voluntarily, indeed he went himself to meet his enemies, and allowed himself to be taken and led to his death.

• Catechism of Pius X, n. 101.