The perhaps more spiritual reason for the extended Passion Narratives was to show that the Son of Man suffered. The word “passion” comes from the Greek word paschō, meaning to suffer or experience. And it is here that Jesus’s life powerfully intersects with ours.
Jesus’s suffering is not confined simply to Good Friday. He would have suffered as any human being does—from illness and physical pain (after all, he had a human body) to the normal emotional suffering that accompanies any human life. Here I often think of the death of his foster father Joseph. When Jesus begins his public ministry, Joseph is not on the scene. Why not? Most likely he had already died. And so we can presume that Jesus suffered in that way too.
But on Good Friday we see that he suffers in almost every way possible. Emotionally, as he is betrayed by one of his closest friends and abandoned by his followers. Physically, of course, as he is nailed to a cross. But also spiritually, as he cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus suffers. So when you pray to him, remember that you are praying to someone who understands you. And Jesus understands you not simply because he is divine and knows all things, but because he is human and experienced all things.
--Fr. James Martin,
Outreach, April 1 & 2, 2023
Image source: Norman Adams, Third Station: Jesus falls the first time, St. Mary Catholic Church, Manchester, England, photo courtesy of Fr. Patrick Michaels, https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2290516807797167&set=pcb.3525178114425932
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