Meaning of the passion of christ (what is it, concept and definition)

What is the passion of Christ:

According to the Christian religion, the passion of Christ, also called the passion of Jesus, refers to the agony and suffering that Jesus of Nazareth suffered from his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (just before he was captured) until his death on the cross..

The word passion, from the etymological point of view, comes from the Latin term passio , which in turn derives from pati , which means 'to endure ', 'to suffer ' or 'to suffer '.

In this sense, the passion of Christ refers to the sufferings that Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, had to suffer after being condemned to death by the authorities, who interpreted his religious message as a threat to the status quo .

In Christianity, the passion and death of Jesus of Nazareth is interpreted as a vehicle of salvation as it leads to the resurrection of Jesus. In turn, the resurrection confirms Jesus as the son of God and animates the faith of Christians in eternal life.

The passion of Christ is also interpreted as an expression of the coherence of Jesus with his message. But most especially, it is interpreted as a sign of the love of Jesus for his brothers in God, since Jesus willingly gives himself to his captors, saving the lives of those who accompanied him and radiating his love to all believers.

From the theological point of view, the passion and death of Jesus, understood as the sacrifice par excellence for which all sins are forgiven, invalidates and suppresses the traditional concept of sacrifice.

Therefore, for the Christian believer, sacrifice is limited to the symbolic and spiritual realm as an expression of love for God and for the brothers, since there is no greater sacrifice than that of Jesus. An example of symbolic sacrifice would be to deprive yourself of some food to provide it to a needy person.

Literary sources of the passion of Christ

The facts of the passion of Christ that are obligatory reference for Christians, are related in the canonical Gospels of Matthew (chapters 26 and 27), Mark (14 and 15), Luke (22 and 23) and John (18 and 19), available in the New Testament of the Bible.

Additionally, the arts and expressions of popular piety have been fueled by other sources, considered apocryphal, such as the Acts of Pilate , certain revelations and other documents.

The passion of Christ in the liturgy

At each liturgical celebration, a few minutes are spent commemorating Jesus' passion and then remembering his resurrection. Still, in the liturgical calendar there is a specific date for the memory of this event.

The annual commemoration strictly dedicated to the passion of Christ is called Good Friday. It takes place in Holy Week and is one of the solemnities of the so-called Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Saturday of Glory).

The passion of Christ is one of the fundamental commemorations of the Christian religion in all its denominations. Each, however, commemorates it differently.

See also:

• Good Friday Easter Easter Holy Week New Testament

The passion of Christ in popular and paraliturgical traditions

In the Catholic religion, the passion of Christ is also remembered through popular traditions and paraliturgical celebrations.

Among them, the Via Crucis stands out, which is usually held every Friday in Lent. The Way of the Cross is a journey of fourteen stations or stops, in which the different episodes of the passion of Jesus are reviewed. The scenes are based on the canonical gospels and the apocryphal texts.

The holy rosary also remembers the passion of Christ through the so-called painful mysteries, but unlike the Way of the Cross , its only reference is the canonical gospels. These mysteries are contemplated on Tuesday and Friday. They include the following episodes: the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, the flogging of Jesus, the crowning of thorns, Jesus with the cross on his shoulders and the death of Jesus on the cross.

See also:

• Way of the Cross (or Via crucis) Lent.

The film The passion of Christ

The Passion of the Christ is also a film released in 2004 and directed by Mel Gibson, which recounts the last twelve hours of Jesus' agony. It takes into account the apocryphal texts and, in particular, the visions of Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774–1824), who would have received details of the passion through revelations of Jesus himself.

The film The Passion of Christ , in English The passion of Christ , has as main actors Jim Caviezel as Jesus of Nazareth and Maia Morgenstern as the Virgin Mary. To give more realism, the film was shot in Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew, the common languages ​​in Jesus' time.