Week 3: Contemplating the Passion and Death of Jesus -- Day 3 (Friday June 7)

I make an even greater effort to labour with Jesus through all his pain, his struggle, his suffering, or what he is willing to suffer: At the time of the Passion, I should pay special attention to how the divinity hides itself so that Jesus seems so utterly human and helpless. I should make every effort to get inside the Passion, not just staying with external sufferings, but entering into the loneliness, the interior pain of rejection and feeling hated, all the anguish within Jesus. To realize that Jesus loves me so much that he willingly suffers everything for my rejections and my sins makes me ask: What response ought I make? (Spiritual Exercises 197).



I speak to Jesus, my God and Saviour, and stay with him through everything that happens... (Spiritual Exercises 198).



... Just as in human situations of taking care of the sick or ministering to the dying, our presence is often more important than our faltering words or awkward actions, so too to be with Jesus in his Passion describes our prayer response at this time better than any words or actions.... We should remember that faced with our shirking of human pain and suffering of the passion, we may have to pray for the gift of even wanting to experience it with Christ.... (Spiritual Exercises 199).



Using Composition of Place read and reflect on the following passages:

Luke 22:54- 23: 25

Questions to Reflect On:

1. How do I give my compassion to the suffering people of this world?
2. Have I acted on my beliefs? How can I be an agent of change?
3. In what ways have I like Peter effectively said, "I don't know him?"
4. When I am with Jesus in his suffering what feelings do I notice? How can I use those feelings to address inequality and injustice in our world?
   

If you have time...

Rent Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ. As you watch it, what do you notice going on inside you?