May 21, 2026
We are now entering the Triduum of Holy week and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. However, my mind continues to focus on the reading of ‘the Passion’ and how it truly is the beginning of “the ultimate love story”. Each love story contains elements of a courtship, a revealing of oneself, a period of struggle, reconciliation and then the triumph of love overall. The story of ‘The Passion’ encompasses the first portions of how Christ built His relationship with us. This first part of the love story sets the stage for the second act in which hope triumphs over all; an ultimate sacrifice based unconditional love.
(Please read on… this is a longer blog than usual, but I promise to make this much shorter than the version of ‘The Passion’ we hear during worship)
On Palm Sunday we are witnesses to the “courtship” that the people have with Jesus. They are in love with the idea of who He is and what He has done but not committed to believing at ALL costs. Now when ‘The Passion’ begins we are able to witness Jesus courting us as He “reclines at the table with His twelve” to break bread and reveal to them what is about to happen. He is “revealing His true self” to those who will now carry forth the ministry only Christ could begin. He also reveals who Peter and Judas truly are, and will be, in their actions before they even know themselves. He knows there will be a dark period but accepts it for the love of His people. This is the same manner in which God continues to handle us…He knows us each by name, our faults and our sins, yet He loves us all the same.
It is only after dinner, when Jesus goes to pray in the Garden, that we as a reader and follower can feel and relate to the gut-wrenching emotions Jesus is experiencing; this is the commencement of the “period of struggle” that will involve all. When he says to the Apostles ““My soul is sorrowful even to death.”, it illustrates ultimate heartbreak and the unspeakable loneliness He is experiencing. For me, it is the vision of His loneliness when He is alone and afraid which display He also knows my pain when I feel defeated. Isn’t this a sign of Christ’s love that He is willing to endure the suffering at hand and struggle through His own fear? We talk about the need for vulnerability in love, and here Jesus is putting Himself on our level by asking to “Have this cup pass from me but let Your will be done and not Mine.” as He prays to his Father. It cannot be our own wills that drive us because it is only the plan of God that can fulfill us.
Now the “period of struggle” remains but this time it is from our vantage point as people. As the soldiers eventually seize and beat Him while His cross is prepared, we are given a parallel in which we take part. Our denying of Christ, and the sin we throw upon Him, gives us the ability to identify with the soldiers. The crucifixion has already begun, and the first nail has not been pounded in. Now carrying all of our discretions and vices Jesus walks with the cross. Those along the road do nothing to assist Him, they either join in on the ridicule or silently stand by as their Lord is led to death… but this does not change His love for us one bit. Even at this time as Christians, we have not reached a period of understanding in the story of our faith that our minds can completely grasp why people would sit by and do nothing. In this day and age, we now carry our own crosses, yet we have those in our lives that can do nothing but be still, feeling helpless and watch us go by.
With his body nailed to the cross, we see the first act of reconciliation through Jesus’ words to the “good” thief “Today you will have your place in Heaven.” This thief is a representation of all of us that have faltered but still accept Christ as true God and true King. Much in the same way he shows reconciliation to His offenders by murmuring “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Reconciliation in love can only be realized when you accept that what you are experiencing is happening for a reason and your sacrifice is for the betterment of your love for each other.
It is hard because the scriptures of ‘The Passion’ do not end happily and that is why it can only be related to as “part 1” of this “ultimate love story” for me. We still see weakness and temptation in Jesus in the cry of “My God My God why have you forsaken me?” But we also see that there are human aspects that cause Him to question… just as we do in the greatest moments of our suffering. At the conclusion we are left waiting in hope and filled with sadness as the story ends with Jesus taking our sins and being sealed with them in the tomb…
Take this Holy time for yourself over the next few days and allow yourself to be placed in the story of ‘The Passion’ and all the readings. He did this for you so that you may love and find eternal happiness one day in the Kingdom. As I personally relate to all of the events of the Triduum, I ask the following questions: What characters are we and when? When have we been the one who has denied or been denied? When have we held the whip in a manner that yielded it with sin? When have we stuck up for our faith like the good thief? What emotion do we feel knowing that God traded His life for our own?
“It cannot be our own wills that drive us because it is only the plan of God that can fulfill us.”
Posted by Greg Wasinski
