Who are YOU in the Passion of the Christ?

It's hard to believe that next week begins Holy Week, but it really is upon us. During Holy Week of the past 8 years or so, I have had different experiences which I try to build on. But when I think about Holy Week, I always draw from an experience many years ago.

When I was a Junior in high school, I went on a retreat directed by the Religious Education Office of my school. During that retreat, my Religion teacher shared with us the story of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Up to that presentation, I really did not want to be there, and when the presentation began I thought there really wasn't anything he could say that would be a "learning experience" for me. Boy, was I wrong.

During the next several days, I am going to blog about much of what I heard during that retreat so I'm not going to spoil it here. What I will say is that there are 2 very distinct "pieces" that are of particular help to me these days.

One is the reality of what a crucifixion was really like, what Jesus suffered. I have to say that the movie "The Passion of the Christ" most closely captures the images of what I have come to believe a crucifixion really was, but I don't think a film can ever really capture and convey all of such a horrible experience. Additionally, the experience of Jesus was of course unique, and I will leave it at that for now.

The second piece of this is found within the my teacher's telling of the experience itself, but through the eyes of Barabbas, and his revealing that in a certain way, we are all Barabbas. It made a difference.

I have since come to experience and re-experience Holy Week through the eyes of multiple people, "players" if you will, who were involved to varying degrees of Jesus's Passion and death.

Jesus once asked, "Who do you say that I am?" I hope you follow the posts this coming week, and I hope they have you asking yourself, "Who do I say that I am in the Passion of Christ?"