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A few years back, Pastor Rich Warren wrote a best-selling book entitled “The Purpose-Driven Life,” in which Pastor Warren attempts to answer the most basic question all of us face in life: “What is the purpose of my life?” While many self-help books often suggest we should look within for an answer—at our desires and dreams—Pastor Warren says our starting place must be God and his eternal purposes for creating us. Real meaning and significance in life comes as we first understand and then when we fulfill God’s purpose for placing each of us here on planet Earth. Pastor Warren argues that a purpose-driven life is constructed upon the bedrock of God’s five eternal purposes and not our culture’s values. These five eternal purposes include:
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we were planned for God’s pleasure, so our first purpose is:
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we were formed for God’s family, so our second purpose is:
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we were created to become like Christ, so our third purpose is:
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we were shaped for serving God, so our fourth purpose is:
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we were made for a mission, so our fifth purpose is: My homily for this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion isn’t a commercial for Pastor Warren’s book because, the truth be told, I have many disagreements with the theology upon which Pastor Warren bases many of his lessons. But, having just heard the narrative of the Passion once again—as we do each Palm Sunday—the concept of a “purpose-driven life” kept echoing through my mind as I was preparing my homily...until I reflected a bit more about the Passion narrative. Yes, it’s true, we almost naturally focus upon the “pain” and “suffering” associated with Jesus’ passion and death. It’s also true that a movie like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” only re-enforces that focus—the truly awful aspects of Jesus’ passion and death—by emphasizing the horrific dimensions of that tortuous road to Mount Calvary. No doubt about it, the Passion was both horrific and tortuous. We must never forget that! But, as important as those images are to focus us upon what Jesus did for all of us as God’s only begotten Son, I’m wondering whether those images entice us to be blinded to what is another important dimension of the Passion narrative, that is, what “lies behind” those horrific dimensions of the tortuous road to Mount Calvary. That other important, yet oftentimes neglected dimension of the narrative is not the word “purpose”—as in Pastor Warren’s “purpose-driven life”—but the word “passion”—as in Jesus’ passion. What would it mean to live “passion-driven” life? To get there, we first have to stop for a moment and reflect, like I did when all I was thinking about in preparing my homily was a “purpose-driven life.” We almost unconsciously link the word “passion” to its Latin root, passio, which means “to suffer” or “to endure.” But, upon closer inspection, the willingness to accept suffering and to endure—as Jesus did—evidences something that precedes and lies behind all of the suffering and enduing. To live with passion is to live a life directed internally, that is, where who we are is revealed in what we do. When we are passionate, our lives exhibit for all to see a fiery, creative, and soaring spirit—a divine spirit that is much greater than the mere human spirit—which trespasses beyond what is socially acceptable or politically correct and soars above and beyond these trifles to God. Consider all we’ve heard in the gospels these past six weeks of Lent, where the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Chief Priests of the people keep trying to “tie down” Jesus’ soaring divine spirit with name-calling, trick questions, and accusations of sin. Like Jesus, when we live passionately, our lives are not something we hope to survive with little or no suffering and pain but as something life-giving and energizing, no matter how horrific and tortuous the circumstances of life—the road to Mount Calvary—may become. All of us yearn to be free. But, unfortunately, we oftentimes aim our yearning for freedom in directions that end up enslaving us. True freedom is to live in such a way that everything we say and do expresses our passion for life—revealing the divine spirit living within. We don’t allow ourselves to be restrained by others simply because what they say or do—again, remember all of the name-calling and accusations lodged against Jesus—means little to us because we yearn to be free. Our “passion for life” is the bedrock defining who we are and provides our “excitement in life.” As we allow passion to be given expression in what we say and do, our lives reveal integrity of character, as Jesus did. Suddenly, we’re soaring above and beyond all that binds us to the earth and our destination is life in God! To live passionately involves much more than simply staying alive or getting through life with as little pain and suffering as is possible. If we are to experience the life for which God has created us, we must learn to live with passion, that is, with a sense of focused, inner-directed energy. We must engage in the subjective process of learning, of making choices, and of taking action. Yes, sometimes we will succeed as we express personal integrity; and, then, sometimes we won’t. Those failures, however, aren’t necessarily dead-ends. No, they can become opportunities for learning as we continue our search for truth and to live a more passionate life because we are volitional, choosing beings, what the Irish poet Seamus Heaney likened in his poems “Blackberry Picking,” “The Death of a Naturalist,” and “Digging” to “hunters,” “diggers,” and “gatherers” of values. Our passion for values and allowing these to transform our lives is what makes us free, that is, to be people of integrity who are capable of making our own way in the world, no matter what other people say and do or how horrific or tortuous our lives may become. When we allow the collective efforts of externally-directed oafs—carefully scripted by public opinion polls, bumper-sticker slogans, talk-show babblings—to define our passion for life, of what does any of that offer to anyone of us? Passion is about being inspired, literally, “to breathe in the Spirit of God,” or more accurately for the baptized, to rediscover the Spirit of God already breathed into us. When we contemplate the Passion—what Jesus was passionate about in his life—we will be pointed in this direction. Jesus was passionate about life, a life that was defined by love of God and neighbor that was made manifest at his baptism in the Jordan River. Passionate about being fulfilling his purpose as “My beloved, in whom I am well-pleased”, the horrific dimensions of the tortuous road to Calvary—by every means painful and full of suffering—could be endured. How is this possible? Jesus’ words and actions gave voice to his integrity, meaning, the divine spirit within Jesus soared above the things of this world to God. In short, Jesus did not allow what others external to him said to define what was internal to Jesus. No, Jesus defined what would become external in his words and actions by what was internal to him. The Spirit of God then transformed the pain and suffering of Jesus’ Passion into life and freedom. What are you passionate about in your life? What in your life makes it possible to suffer and to endure? Are you passionate about your marriage, your spouse, your family, your children and grandchildren, you job? Or, in light of Jesus’ passion, is love of God and neighbor what makes you passionate? The Passion of the Christ invites us today to be inspired, not simply by the horrific dimensions of the tortuous road to Calvary. No, more importantly, we are invited to become inspired by the passion with which Jesus lived his life and how Jesus’ passion revealed his integrity. Jesus’ passion—love of God and neighbor—transformed what would otherwise be excruciating pain and suffering into life and freedom. This is no “purpose-driven” life. No, it’s a “passion-driven” life. |
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HOMILY
