As the holiest of weeks approaches, we are drawn into a meta story of passion and suffering. There will be the annual playing of films depicting the passion of Jesus. Such interpretations can lead to a skewed and superficial understanding of these final days in the life of the Nazarean. How can such a story shed light on and offer insight into our own experience of suffering? Depictions of Christ’s suffering can be easily seen as an emulation of suffering, as if we are meant to embrace painful and, at times, debilitating experiences because that’s what Jesus himself did. The gospel accounts of Jesus’ Passion capture it so succinctly, not dwelling on the excruciating pain but on how Jesus entered into that suffering. His suffering emerged from a deep love for those he encountered in life who were caught in their suffering.

To gain insight into the meaning behind suffering is important. The Buddhist tradition focuses on suffering as the first teaching of the Four Nobel Truths:

“Oh Bhikshus, there are four noble truths. They are the noble truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering.”

The Buddha’s insight into suffering is that it emanates from an interior condition where the inner self keeps searching, wandering aimlessly, seeking comfort only to find displeasure in life. The path to enlightenment requires a letting go of this inner wanting so as to let go and be led through suffering to inner freedom. The echo of Jesus’ teaching aligns with the Buddha that the one who denies their very self is the one who finds inner freedom. It is the false self, the image that is created of ourselves, that needs liberation.

The suffering Jesus encountered was inflicted from a social system that attempted to deny people their rightful place as human. In so doing, these systems at work through Roman power and religious control exercised unbridled power over those who had no chance to live differently. Jesus, driven by the Spirit that led him into the desert to confront his own self and self-worth, emerged from that desert experience committed to liberating people from their suffering. He did not insist that they endured their suffering but they be led to find ways to free themselves both inwardly and outwardly of what was inflicting suffering and causing pain in their lives. Diarmuid O’Murchu, noted sociologist, captures this when he says:

Jesus gave everything, primarily his life, lived to such a depth of commitment that it cost him his earthly life. Because he was empowering so many people not merely by preaching and teaching but primarily through healing and the practice of an open inclusive table, the forces at work in his time felt so threatened to a point where this could no longer be tolerated. ~ Pascal Paradox – Reflections on a Life of Spiritual Evolution, pp 88-89.

It was out of this depth of love that Jesus entered suffering to his last breath of commitment. As Religious we encounter suffering often in our own heartache of watching others struggle in life. We are thrown into the turmoil of watching inequality, abuse of power, and violence that unleashes untold hurt, injury and death on the innocent. How can we find meaning in our heartache? It emerges as an act of loving, of being there, of entering into the pain of another sister or brother. As Pope Francis reflected:

‘It is not a result of easy solutions or avoiding hardship, but rather a strength that comes from the certainty that God is with us.”

The passion of the Nazarean was indeed this – that he discovered in the depths of aloneness and abandonment that Love held him in that empty space and he understood that it was worth it all.

May this Easter bring to life in each of us that resurrected Love that reaches out and keeps drawing us into hope wherever we encounter suffering.

Br Gerard Brady CFC,

President, Catholic Religious Australia.