The Real ‘Real Love Revolution’
What is love? This question had been bugging the minds of people since time immemorial. Different perspectives by different people… this topic is actually very debatable. But what could be a universal definition of love? What is it, really? Simple: God. Nothing else can be a more perfect and accurate definition of the word. God is not just the epitome of love; He is Love Himself.
Proof of this can be seen through The Passion, a film portraying God’s immense and perfect love for humankind through Christ’s passion and death. For man has sinned, God sent His only Begotten Son to become Man and bring forth salvation and redemption for all. Although He could have chosen not to push through with the sufferings (He is God, after all), Christ still went on with it because of His love for us. He had been whipped, scorned, mocked, ridiculed… yet He still stood firm and saved us. If that is not love, I don’t know what is.
The film covers the last 12 hours of Christ’s life here on Earth, beginning with the Agony in the Garden where He wept and told God the Father,
“Father, if You are willing, let this cup pass from Me; yet not My will, but Yours, be done.”
This scene shows the human side of Christ, Him having His own will but still choosing to follow the Will of the Father, as He is perfect man. The film also shows a brief depiction of Christ’s resurrection.
In the Agony in the Garden, Christ’s passion was first suffered in His mind before He suffered it in His body. The beginning of Christ’s passion, therefore, was not when the high priests captured him, but while He was praying in the garden of Gethsemane. What was the most painful thing about all that had happened to Him was the one thing that human beings very much fear: rejection. Christ had been shunned by the high priests, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter thrice, and left by His apostles… almost everyone who had close ties with Him abandoned Him during the most crucial stage of His life. As if these were not enough, those who wanted to kill Him also wanted Him to suffer. To these people, Christ was worth nothing. In fact, they wanted Him to be less than nothing, if at all that was even possible. Christ was not numb – He felt all this, and it was the most heart-breaking suffering He had to endure, much worse than the physical torture that He had received.
So to Him we owe everything. He saved us not just by any easy way – He saved us by becoming what we are, and sharing the human journey with us. He saved us by going through the same sufferings we endure, plus a whole lot more. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, drowsiness, all at the same time… He shared with us our sorrows and spared us from eternal damnation. And most of all, He saved us by choosing to experience the one thing we humans dread the most.
When Pontius Pilate condemned him to death by crucifixion, the crowd saw Him standing in the praetorium in absolute disgrace – but what God the Father saw was different: Christ, in fact, was standing in absolute glory. His Divine plan was about to be fulfilled and all humans will be saved – including those who rejected Him and put Him to death. God was performing His last Act, and the curtains were about to be drawn.
On the cross, Christ kept on fighting. He never felt anger for the people, and even prayed for them:
“Father, please forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
His Great Love for us overflowed even in this moment of pain and despair. After three hours of enduring this pain, Christ drew His last breath… and in doing so gave us Life. This is the greatest moment in history: the salvation of all men that transcends time and space. By giving His Life up, Christ gave us life: He gave life to the men of the past, His present, and those to come. For man has sinned, Christ came to redeem us and bring us the gift of everlasting life. Thus we say,
“We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You; because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.”
