The Passion And The Easter

A LENTEN PILGRIMAGE

Rev. Fr. K M George   The Rising

It is said that some imaginative Spanish missionaries in Latin America saw several signs of the crucifixion of Jesus when they saw the tropical flower of this vine for the first time, such as the three nails, five wounds, the crown of thorns and the lance that pierced His side. Their impressions gave rise to the name, Passion flower, which has remained to this day.

What intrigued me was the way the two flowers appeared together- the Passion and the Easter, in my humble garden. In the liturgical theology of the Orthodox Church the two are inseparable. The saving event that we commemorate and celebrate this week comprises the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. They are one single unfathomable mystery.

In the medieval western Church's theology and spirituality, a heavy emphasis was placed on the physical pain and suffering (passion) of Christ, and so the Resurrection of Christ was relegated to the margins. The trend continued to modern times, and much of western art, literature and theatre including the much-hyped recent Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ" typically represents the medieval obsession with the gruesome and macabre physical suffering of Christ. This may explain why the medieval Latin missionaries could not see in the splendid tropical flower the image of the radiant sun symbolizing the risen Christ rather than the exclusive tokens of the passion of Christ!

In the East, however, the Resurrection of Christ takes centre stage apart from those Eastern churches that came under the colonial influence of Portuguese and Spanish missionaries. Things have changed in the west after the second Vatican Council. Orthodox iconography of crucifixion and resurrection that portrays the equanimous and serene image of the crucified Jesus overcoming the horror of death has begun to influence the west. 

The liturgical tradition has kept the healthy balance. There is no glorious resurrection without suffering and death, and there is no meaningful suffering and death without the hope of resurrection. Following the apostolic witness we proclaim Christ crucified and risen.

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again according to the scriptures.... If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is vain and your faith also is vain"

(1 Corinthians 15;3, 4, 14)

Deprived of its transcendent dimension of hope, human suffering becomes absurd. Belief in resurrection is the only way to redeem human pain from its blind meaninglessness and futility.

The 21st century so far seems to be a century of suffering for the Christian faith. The age of the triumphalist western Christianity of crusades and colonial conquests is over. The Christian east had begun to suffer much earlier. Churches in the Middle East region, the very cradle of Christianity, continue to be in the crucible of intense suffering and face the threat of total elimination. Christian martyrdom of the first centuries under severe persecution seems to be recurring under new oppressive forces in our age.

An Arab Christian friend Michel Nseir sent the following message:

"In our turbulent part of the Arab world, still holding on to hope in hopeless situations has never been more relevant to many than today. I see it as an invitation to be proactive in transfiguring our world.... Our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ was a loser in the eye of the empire, but victorious in our eyes, when we remain, like His disciples, faithful to His message of transformative love for all."

The transformative power of true Christian faith has always been its amazing humility and goodwill, on the model of its Lord Jesus Christ, to forgive, to pray for and love those who persecute it. This is the power of resurrection of light and life which overcomes the powers of darkness and evil. 

The moment has come for believing Christians all over the world and people of good will everywhere to rise to save life through their own suffering, and secure justice, peace and joy for all God's creation:

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed.