Who are you in the Passion Story?

Where do we begin to reflect on the Passion that is proclaimed this Sunday at Mass?  I love Holy week and one of the reasons is that each year I am drawn into the drama of the story of Jesus, Passion, Death and Resurrection.  When we read the Passion, I can imagine myself there and observing all that occurred.  I find that different years I identify with different people in the story!   This year Barabbas caught my imagination.  Imagine what it was like to be him.  He was set free and Jesus died instead!  What would that feel like to be Barabbas?  Did he have any idea what was going on or what was happening to him?

How did he feel when he heard the crowd shout “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us.” Luke 23:18.    We know now that Easter brings New Life to each of us.  What did Barabbas do with his New Life?  What do we do with ours?

I read several reflections throughout Lent as a way to be immerse myself in the story, and I was caught by this reflection about Barabbas by Alice Camille and thought that I would share it!

“Of all the sideline characters inhabiting the Passion story, Barabbas is among the most obscure.  History fills in details beyond the Bible accounts about powerful men like King Herod and Pontius Pilate…. Barabbas is a bit player, a common criminal in an age of oppression that fostered lots of violent men just like him.  We know his given name is a nickname: Barabbas: Bar Abbas means “son of the father.”  Like Jesus, then, Barabbas was his father’s son, possibly born to the criminal class, this death sentence no surprise to anyone who knew him.

And then, the unexpected happens: on a technicality involving another case entirely, Barabbas is released into the sunlight and goes free.

What happens to a man like that?  Sweedish Author Par Lagerkvist, a Nobel Prize winner, wrote a novel about Barabbas’ fate.  In it, the freed man faces a choice: to return to his old ways or to redeem himself.  There is of course, a third option: Barabbas might allow himself to be redeemed by the man put to death in his place.  What makes this story so gripping is that it’s not just Barabbas who must make the decision.  We are all Barabbas, purchased by an innocent man’s blood.”

This week, I am left to consider that Jesus died for me.  I am Barabbas.  What decision will I make?  How will I live for Jesus because he died for me? 

Reflection by Jeanne Cregan