i-Llan: 6th April 2025 – a Passionate God and a Heart of Suffering

A reflection for Passion Sunday on the meanings of passion.

Readings for the Sunday are:
Isaiah 43. 16-21
Philippians 3. 4b-14
John 12. 1-8
You can read them here.

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Transcript

Welcome to i-Llan, a podcast connecting faith, life and scripture. This episode is about a passionate God and a heart of suffering.

What are you passionate about?

It’s a question I find difficult to answer. It depends on your interpretation of ‘passion’ and on what level you’re asking. I may say I’m passionate about chocolate cake, the music of John Denver, the writing of Rowan Williams, my garden or my grandchildren.

Passion is a strong word. It can mean a barely controllable desire. We might speak of a passionate love affair, or someone being passionate about a cause. Such intense emotion, taken to extreme, can be destructive.

In another context, self-help advice often encourages people to follow their dream, discover their passion, find their true self. There’s a kernel of truth in that, but it’s easier said than done. And, when it comes to earning a livelihood, enjoyment or enthusiasm may be more relevant than passion. I hope my dentist is keen enough on dentistry to do a good job on my teeth, and my doctor is equally committed to being a good doctor, but I don’t want them to be carried away by their enthusiasm.

Language, however, evolves and meanings change. The earlier meaning of ‘passion’ is ‘suffering’ and it is in this sense, with a capital ‘P’, that it is applied to the Passion of Jesus. This Sunday, called Passion Sunday, we move into the last two weeks of Lent, culminating in the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. The emphasis shifts from our own weaknesses to focus on the suffering of Jesus.

The gospel story combines both meanings of ‘passion’. Jesus is at a dinner party at the home in Bethany of his friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Practical Martha shows her love by cooking and serving a good meal. Perhaps she made his favourite dishes. Her sister, Mary, pours out her love in passionate, extravagant gesture. She takes a pound of very expensive perfume, anoints Jesus’ feet with it, and wipes them with her hair. The fragrance of the perfume fills the house.

Judas Iscariot is not impressed. What histrionics! What a waste! That perfume could have been sold and the money given to charity. But, St John tells us, he didn’t say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it. A misplaced passion for money rather than compassion for the needy. Compassion, literally ‘suffering with’, is key to directing passion in healthy ways.

Jesus supports Mary. ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ He knows he is on the road to suffering, but his passionate love for God means he is willing to accept the suffering for the compassion he feels for God’s world and its people.

So I’m back to the questions I asked two weeks ago: What could I not live without? What does that tell me about what holds me captive? Or, to put it another way: What am I so passionate about that I would be ready to suffer rather than do without it?

I can manage without chocolate cake and the music of John Denver. I could even manage without the wisdom of Rowan Williams, though I am grateful I don’t have to. But, I can’t imagine life without the person of Jesus to show me the passionate compassion of God, who loves the world so much that he was prepared to suffer with us and for us.

Passion is soul-work. As St Augustine and Meister Eckhart knew, at the ground of our being is passionate desire to be united with God’s passionate desire for humankind. When we connect with that, we discover our true passion in the way we choose to serve the world, whether that be in bringing beauty, justice, healing, or some other gift. As American writer, pastor and theologian, Frederick Buechner, said:

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

So much suffering comes unchosen and regardless of a person’s passion: earthquake, pandemic, crop failure, accident, illness. Also, it’s a mistake to seek suffering for the sake of it; that is seeking martyrdom for personal glory. But your deep gladness will come with the cost of facing obstacles and difficulties, even suffering. At the heart of all suffering is the passionate, compassionate love of God, and sometimes we are asked to choose to be there with God, whatever the cost, because that is where our deepest passion takes us.

I wonder. What are you so passionate about that you would choose to suffer rather than do without it? Where will you find your deep gladness?

So my prayer:

May you know God’s passionate love for you.
 Thus may you find your own true passion
 and your deep gladness. Amen.