Windows on the Passion

Passion is from the Latin ‘passio’, meaning ‘suffering’. Passiontide or Passion Week is the commemoration of the sufferings of Jesus Christ during the last week before Easter. Passion Sunday begins the Holy Week which is the last week of Lent. It is sometimes called the passion-tide. Palm Sunday is the passion Sunday, and it is the time devoted to clear teaching and understanding of the true natures or the deity of Christ the King, and to bring out the meaning of the events in Jerusalem in that Holy week filled with spectacular activities in the life and ministry of Jesus, such as the triumphant entry, teachings in the temple, last supper, arrest and trials, crucifixion, death and resurrection. Passion Week or Holy Week is the Christian liturgical period from Palm Sunday to Easter Day, covering the last days of Christ before his death and Resurrection. Holy week is solemnly observed with teaching and meditation by Christians. Liturgical solemn rites are observed commemorating the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Special observances recalling the institution of the Holy Eucharist are held on Maundy Thursday. Passionate prayers, reading of relevant scriptural passages and veneration of the cross recall the crucifixion of Christ on Good Friday. Holy Saturday commemorates the burial of Christ; midnight vigil services welcomes the Resurrection morning. In England, the Holy Week is the contemporary term for it, while the Roman Church still uses the earlier term Passion Week for it. It is also generally called the Great Week because of the great sacrifice which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ paid the same week. Sunday through Wednesday, Jesus spent each night in Bethany, just two miles east of Jerusalem and opposite slope of the Mount of Olives. He probably stayed at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Jesus spent Thursday night praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Friday and Saturday night Jesus’ body lay in the garden tomb. From the 16^th century to the present time, the passion of Christ is also observed in the liturgical ceremony termed ‘Station of the Cross.’ The devotional journey or steps usually take fourteen stations to be completed. The stations include: (1) Christ is condemned to death. (2) Christ takes up His Cross. (3) Christ falls the first time. (4) Christ meets His blessed mother. (5) The Cross of Christ is laid on Simon of Cyrene. (6) Veronica wipes the face of Christ. (7) Christ falls the second time. (8) Christ speaks to the women of Jerusalem. (9) Christ falls the third time. (10) Christ is stripped of His garments. (11) Christ is nailed to the Cross. (12) Christ dies on the Cross. (13) Christ’s body is taken down from the Cross. (14) Christ’s body is laid in the tomb.

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This article was first published on 23rd March 2016

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