Dying to change

Passion Sunday, the Sunday prior to the celebration of the Paschal mystery, serves as a reminder to us that change in our lives is inevitable and often leads to discomfort, to say the least.  This Sunday in modern times has become overwhelmed with the politicisation of the Sunday parade / march for justice. I have no issues with protest but protest without the consequences of change becomes a yawn, a nice thing to do to show that we are still highlighting injustices in the world. Yet, this Sunday is more than protest. It is so much more than the highlighting of injustice and furthering the political debate. These may well be filled with passion but the passion that we celebrate or should celebrate is the passion that comes with change.  If things do not change we loose our passion as the initial impetus fades into mundaneity.

Christ enters Jerusalem in order to bring about change.  The ultimate change that is involved with death, dying and eventually re-birth into something new. If we are unable to accept this change in our lives and in the lives of those around us we are unable to protest efficiently and effectively. The sacrifice that Christ agonises over in the Garden of Gethsemane is this ultimate change. Not the mundane limited effects of protest on our lives but the change that brings about a death to our old way of thinking to bear the fruits of new life. We need to re-look and re-imagine our stances on what it means to be a follower of Christ's way, if we are to look at any form of change in our own private lives, let alone the lives of the public. At the start of this week, during which we celebrate the final hours of Christ in Jerusalem leading up to the cross and beyond, we need to undergo our own agonising decision. Our response to these momentous events needs to re-imagined each time as each time the events are re-set for us in our time. We do not experience these first hand, we do not see and smell the sights that drove the crowds in their passion or the doubts and resignation in Christ's. Each year is different and needs to be witnessed differently to reflect our changed circumstances.  The world is not the same place it was a year ago let alone three years ago or two thousand.

The palm cross asks us to make a decision - to change or to stay the same?

So if our celebration of the passions of this week are to be changed how are we to do this resetting? In coming to this point in our Lenten journey we need to enter with passion the changes that the journey has opened our eyes to. There is no point to entering into a journey unless you wish to achieve the journey's end. Christ's journey is one that leads to death and resurrection. That means that our journey should also be leading to the same place in our own lives and the lives of our community in which we interact. If the ultimate change is to be rejected at the end of our journey then we have turned our hearts away from Christ's transition to which we are called.  This week is where we make our decision to change, as Christ did. To die to our old self, to die to the sameness of our repetitive lives so that we can stand with Christ and transition into a new reality for the community that we serve and for our own benefit.

If we find ourselves continuing with the same protests, the same gatherings with the same purpose then we have not achieved the change in our lives or those around us. Then the question must arise; why repeat the process? Why continue in the same manner? Christ's passion changed the world, Christ's death introduced new life, Christ's presence in our hearts should also make changes to our communities and selves. We do not celebrate stasis, we celebrate passionate change, we celebrate the idea that we can re-imagine the world as our old thinking dies and new thinking takes on a different aspect. This week let us die to the old, readjust our perspective and re-create the new from the death of the old.