Passion Time

From a Doctrinal Point of View

The Church, which since the commencement of the Easter Cycle has followed Jesus in His apostolic ministry, contemplates, in mourning, during the Passion Time the sorrowful events which occurred during the last year (Passion Week) and the last week (Holy Week) of His mortal life.The hatred of the enemies of the Messiah was increasing day by day and was about to break out: Good Friday will remind us of the most dreadful of all crimes, the bloody drama of Golgotha foretold by the Prophets, and by Jesus Himself. Wherefore the Liturgy, comparing the Old and New Testaments, sets up a striking parallel between the words of St. Paul and the Evangelists on the subject of the Passion and the explicit prophecies of Jeremias, Isaias, David, Jonas and Daniel.

On the approach of the fatal dénouement, the Church 's lamentations become more sorrowful, and soon we shall hear her bemoan the loss of her Spouse Who is no longer with her.“ The sky of Holy Church becomes more and more darkened," writes Dom Guéranger. As on stormy days, thunderbolt of Divine Justice is about to fall : it will strike the Saviour Who, for love of His Father and of us, has become Man . In virtue of the mysterious solidarity which unites all the members of the great human family. this God made flesh substitutes Himself for His guilty brethren . “ He clothes Himself," says the Prophet, “ in our sins, as with a cloak ” and “ for us He hath made Himself sin ," * in order that He may “ bear it in His body upon the tree” and destroy it by His death.

In the Garden of Gethsemane the sins of all time, of all souls, horrible, repugnant, flow in foul waves into the most pure soul of Jesus, which be the receptacle of all human vileness, the sink of creation . " Wherefore His Father, in spite of the love that He has for Him , will treat Him as an accursed being, for it is written : “ Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." § “ The work of our salvation required indeed ” that Jesus “ should be attached to the wood of the cross, so that life should be given back to us by that which had given us death , and that He Who had triumphed by the tree should in His turn be conquered by the tree." Between the Prince of life and the prince of death there was a matchless strife, but “ Christ triumphed by the sacrifice of Himself."

Indeed, on Palm Sunday He proceeds as a conqueror, sure of Himself, acclaimed and already crowned with palms and laurels, “ signs of the victory which was going to be won .” “ Rejoice, o daughter of Sion , for behold thy King cometh to thee," says Zacharias, and the crowd spread out, as was usual for kings, their garments under His feet, crying out : “ Blessed is He Who comes as a king in the Name of the Lord." Jesus enters Jerusalem, His capital, ascends the precious throne which His blood “ adorns with royal purple ” ! III and above which the Jews and Romans in the three languages then spoken wrote His glorious title : “ Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The prophecy of David is accomplished : God reigns by the Tree," which from an object of ignominy becomes “ the standard of the King ” and “ our one hope in this passion Time. "Before the Cross let us prostrate ourselves, for it is through this wood that joy has come to the world ." And to emphasise that it is fron of view that the Church will henceforth consider Jesus on the cross,