Engaging with Passiontide

​Engaging with Passiontide by Rev. Michaël Merle

Report by John-Peter Gernaat

This forms a second part on Passiontide and should be read together with the talk Preparing for Passiontide in the March articles.

We are going to review Passiontide at hand of the pericopes (extracts from the Gospel – the Good News). In Passiontide we have three Sundays and then Palm Sunday that begins Holy Week. On these three Sundays we hear proclaimed from the altar an extract from Luke 11, an extract from John 6 and an extract from John 8 on the third Sunday of Passiontide.

In looking at a few verses from these pericopes we will come to understand what Passiontide is all about. Before these Sundays of Passiontide, as a preparation for Passiontide, we heard the story of the Temptation and of the Transfiguration. In Luke 11 we hear about the driving out of a guardian spirit that opposed the development of a human being. In many translations the word used is ‘a demon’. This is a transliteration of the Greek, but we have lost the understanding that the Greek word had. A demon was neutral; it could be good or it could be bad and that depended on the activity of the particular spirit. A demon was the description of a guardian spirit. The guardian spirit in question was one that took over the life of the person and possessed the person. In this reading at the beginning of Passiontide, we are reminded that we must take responsibility for ourselves, and we must free ourselves of that which blocks our capacity to grow. The demon that possessed the human being denied the person the capacity to speak. Once released from the guardian being the person is able to speak, is able to give voice to who they are. We hear this later in the pericope when we hear: “Blessed is he who hears my words, the full expression of divinity” – the word that makes the divine apparent. When we hear the Gospel in the Act of Consecration Christ is fully present in the words that we hear. Moreover, He is alive in the priest and in the congregation as individuals and collectively: “Christ in you” where ‘you’ is both singular and plural.

In the pericope: “And when your whole body is completely illumined so that is no room for darkness any longer, then there will be a shining radiance in you as if a bright light shines within you” (Madson rendition). There will then be an enlightenment shining from within! Seven times in the Act of Consecration of the Human Being we hear the words “The Spirit God enlighten us”. This does not only mean that we should be enlightened so as to understand things better, it also means that our whole being is enlightened, filled with the light of the Spirit and therefore becomes a new source of radiance, of light, in the world.

John 6 presents the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on the water – two extraordinary signs that follow one on the other. The feeding of the five thousand provides us with the image of how we can expand and grow community. This becomes a capacity in us through the Christ-in-us. We have the ability for the little to become enough to nourish the whole community. This is one level of meaning in this story. After the feeding the twelve go out, each with their own basket, and fill their baskets with the leftovers. There was not only enough to feed the community but there was an over-abundance.

When Christ approached the boat walking on the water his words to the disciples are: “I am, have no fear”. The thought “I am” becomes a key new thought in Passiontide. Here we are dealing with a statement that simply proclaims: “I am” and goes, one may say, beyond the seven “I am” statements of Christ.

When we hear John 8, we hear from the end of the chapter where we hear: “Yes, I tell you, from the days before Abraham was born, I existed as the ‘I am’”. It is such a confirmation of the true expression of the Divine living in the very being and body of Jesus of Nazareth. It ensures that we understand that everything related to Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday has real meaning.

Thus, we hear in the three pericopes about the guardian beings and taking responsibility and then we encounter the ‘I am’ responsibility that we must take. We must say: I am responsible. We can only say this because Christ has made this possibility a reality in us and when we say this, we take on a Christ-like stance.

Passiontide is a period of fasting and prayer and it is of value to speak in this regard of suffering. The stance of the world is to avoid suffering. Yet, it is part of the journey of life that we experience suffering. The Buddha brought this to the attention to humanity, that life is suffering and that this suffering comes through attachment. We can more fully understand this and transform the concept from a Buddhist perspective to a Christian perspective. Our human constitution of body, soul and spirit has a soul that understands itself through the physical body. The physical body does not appreciate the world around it. The senses provide an open conduit through which the soul can experience the world around the body. When the soul becomes attached to the experiences provided by the physical body it experiences suffering when it is deprived of the experiences. The soul, however, is not only connected with the physical body, it is also inclined to the promptings of the spirit. At death the soul does not remain with body, it remains with the spirit. Its long-term relationship is with the spirit. Therefore, when the soul is able to inform the spirit of the experiences of the physical body without developing an attachment to those experiences or a dependence on them, it is released from the suffering of attachment. The soul becomes the medium for passing on to the spirit the wonders of life in a physical body.

We know from various religious streams that after death the soul must release from all attachments to the physical body. If these attachments are strongly inclined to the physical experiences the soul will suffer after death in this process of purification (also known to some as purgatory). Passiontide reminds us that we can let go of physical attachments, through fasting, while we are still in life. There is an idea in some streams of Buddhism that one should appreciate the moment. This type of appreciation is to remain unattached to the unfolding that is occurring, and develop appreciation. Through this one can develop the ability to let go of the drama of physical existence with its sadness and pain rather than to remain attached to the suffering. There is always a larger picture that can be considered which is real. Passiontide is a time of realising that suffering is the letting go of attachment.

Experiencing Passiontide is about taking responsibility. We can begin the work of the purification of the soul by taking responsibility consciously. Suffering will not bring about this purification, only a conscious understanding of the suffering and taking responsibility for the suffering will lead to the purification of the soul through the letting go of attachment.