The Passion of Christ

1) The first painful vision of Christ: his pain and sorrow

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain
of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit (Jo 12:24).

- Apprehension of a terrible thing about to happen. The heart of Jesus

was sad. The first expression of Jesus before his Passion was one of
sadness: My soul is sorrowful to death (Mt 26:38). He knew
exactly what was about to take place.

- He sees instantly himself betrayed by a friend, tied up like a criminal,

dragged by the streets, led from tribunal to tribunal, calumniated by
the Jews, denied by Peter, spat upon in his face, treated as an
impostor, as a madman, whipped, crowned with thorns, nailed to the
Cross and finally dying in an agony of torment.

- But this is what Jesus chose, in order to save us.

2) The second painful vision of Christ: sin

- More than his own pain, what caused Jesus to suffer was the sight of
sin: The Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all (Mt 20:28).

- All the sins committed from the beginning of the world were put on
his shoulders. Even the most terrible sins, they are all before him and
on his shoulders. We too were present to him there. Each one of us
was personally there with every sin we have committed...

- We dont take sin seriously, until we see Christ and look into his eyes
during his passion.

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3) The third painful vision of Christ: ingratitude

From the cross Jesus looks around: the eight Apostles, all have left and have
abandoned him; his three special friends Judas was plotting against him.
The multitudes The five thousand men he had fed when they were
hungry Everywhere, he had restored sight to the blind, he had made the
paralytic walk, he had cleansed the leper, he made the deaf hear and the
mute speak and they are now asking Pilate to crucify him

He sees each one of usour sins, our ingratitude.