Central to the mystery of Christ’s Passion and Death is the fact that these do not overwhelm him inevitably as a part of his enforced destiny. Jesus is not the victim of circumstance or a badly failed Messiah. Rather, the Gospel shows Jesus moving very deliberately toward his consummation on Golgotha with the pure freedom of love. In a real sense, Jesus is both the protagonist and the author of his own story, the writer of its plot. Through his suffering he wants to make of his life and person a gift to others, to save them and offer them up to the Father together with himself, as a holocaust of peace and reconciliation. See with what determination, sovereignty and clear knowledge he expresses himself: The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Let us, then, rejoice with immense gratitude and decide once and for all to follow our Lord in a life of sacrificial service.
Meditation by Father Simeon.
