Jesus began his passion during the Last Supper. First, he washed the feet of the disciples as a servant. Then, he confronted Judas with the truth of his betrayal, giving him a chance not to go through with it. It pained Jesus to know that one of his closest disciple would betray his love and friendship for monetary gain. By dipping the piece of bread in the sauce and giving it to one at table was a sign of love. It both pained and saddened Jesus when Judas took, ate and left to seal his decision. How often does God out of love give us the grace not to give into the temptation that would separate us from him and we still sin? The rejection of love is a terrible wound. We know what that feels like humanly. What must it felt by Jesus, who is both God and Man?
We are told that God so loved us that he sent his Son to redeem us through his passion and death by crucifixion. His passion begins with his Last meal with his disciples. Washing the feet of the twelve was a preparation for what he would do on the cross. Though he was Lord and Master, he humbled himself by becoming a servant, washing the feet of those who were under him. As the suffering servant of God, prophesied by Isaiah, Jesus would humbly embrace crucifixion, so that we would not have to endure eternal damnation and alienation from God. By his sacred blood he washed us from the stains of our sins. He freely chose to wash the feet of his disciples out of love. He freely chose to endure the debasement of crucifixion out of love. How can we imitate Jesus, the servant, in our life?
One of the ways we show our love for God is to avoid sin as much as possible. This can only be done with his grace, of course. But it takes an intentional decision on our part to recognize the temptation and to choose to love God rather than to satisfy ourselves. Like Jesus has shown us, we keep our eyes on the Father and remember his love for us. That is what it means to love God with our whole being. Every part of our being is given to the praise, honor and service of God. It is not the fear of punishment that motivates us, but the love for the God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. This is not easy. We may fall short at times, like Peter. But if God's love for us is important, we will learn how to grow in our choice to love him rather than sin.
Lent is a time to heed the call of God to love him with our whole being. This seems impossible at first glance. It is if we depend on our own strength of will alone. But if we depend on the grace of God, all things are possible. God does not ask the impossible from us. This grace of God is there, if we ask for it and respond to it. The difference, in a sense, between the saint and the sinner is the former makes and acts on the choice to love God totally, while the latter chooses to love self or other things more than God. So basically, it comes down to choice. Adam and Eve could choose to love and be obedient to God or to choose to serve their own purposes. So, ask God for the grace and then make the choice to love God with your whole being. The devil wants us to think it is impossible, but it isn't. But it takes practice and commitment.
The final lesson we learn from Jesus' Passion and death is his perseverance from the agony of the Garden to his death on the cross. At any time, he could have said, "I've done enough." But he chose to endure until the end every suffering and pain he received. So often, we want to stop, rather than persevere until the end. At those moments we need to enter into the sufferings of Jesus, asking him for the strength to go on. One of the temptations of the Evil One is to have us stop. I think one of the pains of Jesus in the Garden was this effort of Satan, telling Jesus that his suffering will be in vain for countless of people. Jesus responded by praying to the Father, "Not my will, but yours be done." Many of the saints had this experience in their sufferings. Their torturer would say, "If you renounce your God, I will stop the torture." They chose to persevere even until death, without giving in to the temptation. Lord, give me the grace of perseverance in all my trials.
As we continue to reflect on the death of Jesus, we recognize and respond to his great love. As he said: "Greater love has no one than to lay down his life for his friend." It is not only through his death on our behalf that he shows us his love, but the manner of death by crucifixion, shows the depth of his love for us. Paul makes it even clearer. Jesus died for us when we were alienated from him. He gave his physical life that we might have eternal life. Do we have the same type of love for others? Striving to imitate Jesus' love is difficult. None of us will be crucified for another person. But we can choose to forget about ourselves and truly be loving to others, especially those who have hurt us or estranged from us. Our love does not depend on them, but on our choice, in response to God's love for us.
