Just as Christmas, of course, celebrates the birth of Christ, The Passion refers to the narrative in the four Gospels describing the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus. This sequence, and the subsequent description of the resurrection of Christ, are a story so powerful that it has enthralled hundreds of millions over the past two millennia.
For Christians, and for many Moslems who view Jesus as one of the five great prophets, Christ’s suffering and sacrifice are deeply powerful. This is in part because of the purpose of that sacrifice. Jesus, of course, was given many ways to escape his suffering and death including renouncing the notion that he was the son of God. Instead, his passion for Love was so great that he offered his life to save us.
What an odd notion, the people of the time thought. Why would some one so powerful offer to suffer and die on behalf of all others. This, they could see, was certainly a person moved by great passion…
The articulation of our life purpose doesn’t mean much unless we infuse that purpose with committed action. Each of us, in our own ways, strive and suffer to achieve what we believe is meaningful. Whether we do so with sour resentment, flat indifference, or deep passion is a choice born of personal reflection.
The historic description of childbirth as "labor" is simultaneously an example, a commentary and a metaphor on what matters in life. The mother passionate to have a child will endure pregnancy and birth with joy. The mother who resents her pregnancy will go through the same physical experience but that experience will be tainted by the poison of resentment.
As we rise this morning and the next to meet the day, we may consider, perhaps for the first time in a long time, an old and critical set of questions: Are we living our lives with passion? If not, why not? If so, how does this passion renew itself?
If your life lacks passion, what would it take to plant and grow this seed within you?
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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