Summary: Our nature wants to lash out when faced with the unjust, hateful, or violent acts of our enemies. But Jesus reveals a God who heals and loves his enemies.
Lent is a season of looking ahead to the cross, of remembering Jesus’ sacrifice, and of taking up our own crosses. Our Lord’s endurance of a Roman cross, with its appalling pain and selfless love, is called “the passion” (Latin for suffering) in Church tradition. This sacrifice both saves and summons us. His passion is our salvation given and salvation lived.
So it’s no wonder the Gospels speed past months of Jesus’ life to give inordinate focus to his final week, his final days, his final hours. During these two months, we too will slow down and pay careful attention to the varied, powerful truth of His Passion.
