Mission & Charism

An Emerging Charism

The events commonly referred to as the Passion of Jesus began with Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, continued through his trial and brutal crucifixion, and concluded with His resurrection.

The word Passion derives from the Latin passio, meaning “suffering”.

Jesus was crucified as a direct consequence of how he lived. His vision of the Reign of God consumed him. This is the vision about which Mary sang – where the mighty are brought low, the lowly raised up, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the poor finally hear good news (Lk. 1:46-55). The leaders who crucified Jesus used their power and authority to silence this vision. But never losing confidence in God’s promise to him, Jesus endured crucifixion and his followers soon experienced that Jesus was alive in new and unexpected ways.

Our founder, St. Paul of the Cross, saw in the Passion of Jesus “the greatest work of divine Love”. St. Paul was a mystic. He saw beyond what others saw. He saw a world where people might know the immensity of God’s love for them, where obstacles to this love are removed, and where we can share that same love with every human being.

St. Paul calls on Passionists to be mystics, too – to see beyond common divisions and beyond societal and cultural prejudices – in order to build a world that reflects that vision of the Reign of God.

In St. Paul’s movement, the Catholic Church recognized a unique Charism, which is a “gift” to be lived and a gift to transform the world.

As Passionists, we live this gift by professing a special vow to keep alive the memory of Jesus’s Passion through prayer, preaching and by walking with the “crucified” of today.

Who are today’s crucified? 
They are a kaleidoscope of humanity and life who are marginalized, minimized and abused by society’s economic, educational, healthcare, and legal systems...
...they are a Haitian child made homeless by natural disaster and political discord... ...they are an American woman leaving prison in search of a new life...

...they are a middle-class parent battling addiction, a young man struggling on New York City’s streets to find his way forward, and an elderly woman dying in isolation in a nursing home...

...they are our black brothers and sisters fighting ingrained discrimination... ...they are our suffering Earth as it sustains a continuous global ecological assault.

Most religious communities introduce themselves as ‘This is what we do.” They might educate young people, or feed the hungry, or house the homeless.

As Passionists, what we do is remember. We remember what was done to Jesus in his Passion, and we stand with every living being today who is experiencing their own crucifixion.

So while we cannot state that ‘This is what we do’, we can affirm that ‘This is what we believe’ - we are thinking, living, and praying into a future where we will meet the crucified in ways never imagined.

Ours is an emerging charism.