Submitted by: Malig-on, Via Mae Danica D.

April 05, 2021

Submitted to: Dr. Jojit Foronda
PASCHAL MYSTERY
Any great story has multiple parts two, three, six, nine, furthermore, some of the best stories, some of our favorite stories, the
movies, the books we read, and we're not satisfied with just one. Well, the story of Paschal mystery kind of a trilogy has three
minor parts. The first part is passion; the word passion truly means like to suffer or to endure, and Jesus suffers. It starts with
gruesome and bloody. Jesus suffers for us not because we're terrible but because He loves us, and so it begins with Him in the
Garden of Gethsemane, and He's looking and sees what's going to happen, He knows what will happen, and, then He looks at
us, He looks at me, and loves us, and love flows so He does this. Now the passion endures scourging and scourging is a way
of torture that we don't use anymore, we don't even really talk about it anymore, but it was hard, it wasn't easy, but He does it,
and He loves us, so the first part ends not the way we would want but kind of with a cliffhanger.
Next, the second part is the death, and we're thinking now, this part's going to be great because the first part was kind of hard,
the second part is to be amazing angels are going to come down from heaven like He will show how cool He is, and that's not
really what happens. This part is Jesus dying, and he doesn't die the way that we would want Jesus Christ doesn't just fall asleep
and wake up the next day in clouds doesn't stop it and have everybody see His glory and how powerful and beautiful He is. No,
he continues to look at us, and love continues to flow, gets crucified to a humiliating death. Also, imagine being those 12 apostles
they're looking at their hero they're looking at somebody else they have believed in died in, and I reckon somebody I believe in
telling me, "Hey, I've got this, I can beat this, I'm gonna win" and then it seems like they lost. The apostles were stuck in that
point, afraid, sad, maybe ashamed because their hero, their leader seemed to have forfeited.
Above the cross at the very top, there was a sign that said the kings of the Jews, the indication was exact Jesus has enthroned
that cross was a throne he wore a crown. He wasn't just a King of the Jews wasn't just the Kings of those 12 apostles he was
and is the King of us, the Kings of our hopes, our dreams, our desires, even the Kings of our sins and our suffering. See Jesus
is King then and He's King now everything.
And so, we get to this third aspect, and this is where the glory comes in where the cliffhangers end, and we get something great
and powerful the resurrection because God doesn't stop there, God doesn't stop at death, God doesn't stop at suffering. God
stops at glory and greatness, and so we have this resurrection. Jesus comes back just that simple. It is incredible since the
apostles were confused, and they didn't believe it. Thomas doubted Jesus came back had to show himself to him. Sometimes
we doubt that our suffering is going to an end, and sometimes we question if there's something great that God can do with us
or in us, but the resurrection is a sign that God can do something unique.
For 2000 years, people have been trying to disprove the resurrection. They want to disprove that God isn't that great, the one
that just disproved that God isn't that powerful and even can't because God doesn't do little things, He takes little things and
makes them great. And so, we have this resurrection, we have this third part where God shows how much He loves to us, this
part where God shows that He will make us into something new, something great, something beautiful, something better than
we could ever imagine that we are. God's greatest dream for us is tremendous than our greatest dream could ever be.
Whether you think you are a religious believer or not, you must meditate on the mystery of Passover: the passion of Jesus,
death, and resurrection are of great human value. Every life is built according to the same pattern. We have all experienced our
passion, death, and resurrection many times. Our lives are coming to an end. When we take time to maintain, reflect and accept
this Passover mystery, we will discover the daily gift of salvation for all believers.
Thus, these three parts we call the Paschal Mystery. We don't just celebrate these at the Holy triumph - Holy Thursday, Good
Friday, Holy Saturday, we celebrate these every Mass we celebrate this as a church every single day, this is who we are, what
we do we live a life guided by love by a God who's bigger than anything we can endure God who is tremendous than anything
we come across, a God who is absolutely in love, so the paschal mystery isn't just something we read about in a book, is not
just fantastic story, yet it's our story, it's a story about you, about me, and how much God loves us and how nothing, not even
death can keep us away from Him.