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Daily reflections for Lenten Easter, written by Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI.

We tend to misunderstand the passion of Jesus. Spontaneously, we think of it as the pain of the physical sufferings he endured on the road to his death. Partly that misses the point.

Jesus passion should be understood as passio, passivity, a certain submissive helplessness he had to undergo in counter distinction to his power and activity.

His passion begins in the garden of Gethsemane, immediately after he has celebrated the Last Supper.

The Scriptures tell us that he went out into the garden with his disciples to pray for the strength he needed to face the ordeal that was now imminent.

It’s significant that this agony takes place in a garden. In archetypal literature and scripture, among other things, is this kind of literature.

A garden is not a place to pick cucumbers and onions. It is a place of delight, the place of love, the place to drink wine, the place where lovers meet in the moonlight. The place of intimacy.

It’s Jesus the lover, the one who calls us to intimacy and delight with him who sweats blood in the garden.
Jesus agony is that of the lover who’s been misunderstood and rejected in a way that is mortal and humiliating.

It’s his entry into the darkest black hole of human existence, the black hole of bitter rejection, aloneness, humiliation and helplessness.