*The following sections on Christ’s Passion are taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. One would have to read nn. 595-618 to fully appreciate this teaching.
All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion
598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that “sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured.”389 Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself,390 The Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone.
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”410 He affirms that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many”; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.411 The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.”412
Jesus freely embraced the Father’s redeeming love
609 By embracing in his human heart the Father’s love for men, Jesus “loved them to the end”, for “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”425 In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men.426 Indeed, out of love for his Father and for men, whom the Father wants to save, Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”427 Hence the sovereign freedom of God’s Son as he went out to his death.428
Christ’s death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
613 Christ’s death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men, through “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”,439 and the sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the “blood of the covenant, which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”.440
614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.441 First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.442
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross
616 It is love “to the end”446 that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life.447 Now “the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.”448 No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and con-stitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.
Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice
618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the “one mediator between God and men”.452 But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, “the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” is offered to all men.453 He calls his disciples to “take up [their] cross and follow (him)”,454 for “Christ also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example so that (we) should follow in his steps.”455 In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.456 This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.457 Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.458
Meditation on the Passion of our Lord
The following text is taken from: The Navarre Bible: Gospel of St. Matthew, footnote Mt 27:26-50, available from: www.scepterpublishers.org.
Meditation on the Passion of our Lord has made many, many saints in the course of Church history. Few things are of more benefit to a Christian than contemplation –slow and devout, to the point of being amazed- of the saving events surrounding the death of the Son of God made man. Our mind and heart will be overwhelmed to see the suffering of him who created the angels, men, heaven and earth; who is Lord of all creation; the Almighty who humbles himself to this extent (something quite unimaginable, were it not that if happened).
He suffers in this way because of sin – the original sin of our first parents, the personal sins of all men, of those who have gone before us and those who will come after us, and my own sins. Christ’s terrible sufferings spell out for us, as nothing else can, the infinite gravity of sin, which has called for the death of God himself made man; moreover, this physical and moral suffering which Jesus undergoes is also the most eloquent proof of his love for the Father, which seeks to atone to him for man’s incredible rebellion by the punishment inflicted on his own innocent humanity; and of his love for mankind, his brothers and sisters; he suffers what we deserve to suffer in just punishment for our sins.
Our Lord’s desire to atone was so great that there was no part of his body that he did not permit to be inflicted with pain – his hands and feet pierced by the nails; his head torn by the crown of thorns; his face battered and spat upon; his back pitted by the terrible scourging he received; his chest pierced by the lance; finally, his arms and legs utterly exhausted by such pain and weariness that he dies. His spirit, also, is saturated with suffering – the pain caused by his being abandoned and betrayed by his disciples, the hatred his own people turn on him, the jeers and brutality of the Gentiles, the mysterious way his divinity permits his soul to suffer.
Only one thing can explain why Christ undergoes this redemptive Passion – Love, immense, infinite, indescribable love. As he himself taught, the entire Law of God and the Prophets are summed up in the divine commandment of love (cf. Mt. 22:36-40)
The four evangelists have filled many pages with their account of the sufferings of our Lord. Contemplation of Jesus’ Passion, identification with the suffering Christ, should play a key role in the life of every Christian, if he is to share later in the Resurrection of his Lord:
“Don’t hinder the work of the Paraclete. Be united to Christ in order to purity yourself, and together with him experience the insults, the spit, the blows and the thorns… Experience with him the weight of the cross, the nails tearing your flesh, and the agony of a forsaken death…And enter into the pierced side of our Lord Jesus until you find secure shelter in his wounded heart” (J. Escriva, The Way, 58).