WITH the celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord’s Passion, we begin the Holy Week of our liturgical calendar, the most important week of the year that commemorates the culmination of the redemptive mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s on this day that we are told how Christ went to the extreme of love by offering his life on the cross as a ransom for all our sins.
Let us hope that we can give time and due effort to meditate on this most important part of Christ’s life here on earth with the view of at least approaching this extreme of love to which we are also called.
As we can gather from the life of Christ, he, being God, not only became man to be with us, but also did everything to make things right for us, giving us the fullness of revelation about us. And since that was not enough due to our sinfulness, he went all the way to offering his life on the cross. (cfr. Phil 2,6-11)
To follow his example is the greatest challenge we have to tackle in this life. We may not be able to perfectly imitate him, but at least we should make the effort to pursue that ideal meant for us.
In this regard, we have to realize that given our wounded condition, the cross, in any of its forms, will always be an integral, if not essential, part in this pursuit for love. We need to understand that unless we love the cross the way Christ loved it, we can never say that we are truly loving, or loving with the fullness of love.
We really need to know why the cross is essential and indispensable in our life. That’s because in the first place Christ himself said that to follow him, we need not only to deny ourselves but also to carry the cross daily. (cfr. Lk 9,23) We need to know the purpose of the cross because the cross, through Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, is where everything in our life is resolved.
Yes, Christ preached. He performed miracles. But in the end, he had to offer his life on the cross because no matter what he did, our sins are such that they simply cannot be undone and forgiven through the preaching of the truths of our faith and the tremendous effects of the miracles. Christ had to offer his life on the cross!
In our daily life when we can encounter cases of severe differences and conflicts among ourselves—for example, between husband and wife, parents and children, among friends and neighbors, etc.—we need to see to it that the more difficult the situation is, the more unfair and unjust the conditions are, the more we should follow the example of Christ who, treated in the worst way possible on earth, just offered his life for us.
That’s why he was more close to the sinners than to the self-righteous ones. Just the same, he loved all as proven by the fact that before dying on the cross, he asked forgiveness from his Father for those who crucified him.
We have to expand and deepen our attitudes towards others. Are we willing to think always of them, keenly observant of how they are? Are we moved to pray for them and to leap to their assistance when the chance comes? Do we try to go all the way in loving them, no matter how unfair to us things may look?
To be sure, only when we truly identify with Christ can we go also to the extreme of love.
