On Passion
What, really, is "passion"?
My grandmother was a second grade teacher for over twenty years. She taught in a little tiny community in the middle of nowhere in eastern Oregon. I visited her classroom a few times growing up and when she retired helped her move back here to the Willamette Valley. Even at eleven years old I was beginning my book hoarding habit. I managed to snag an old classroom dictionary aimed at elementary school aged children. It is a 1974 Thorndike Barnhart beginning dictionary and I use it on a regular basis. Sometimes really simple definitions help us to filter thru things and gain clarity.
My child dictionary defines PASSION as:
1. very strong feeling: Hate and fear are passions
2. rage; violent anger: He flew into a passion
3. love between a man and a woman
4. very strong liking: She has a passion for music
5. thing for which a strong liking is felt: Music is her passion
PASSIONATE:
1. having or showing strong feelings: The fathers of our country were passionate believers in freedom
2. easily moved by anger
3. resulting from strong feeling: He made a passionate speech against surrender
There is, however, a whole other perspective on the meaning of the word PASSION.
In the season three episode of the television show "GOTHAM" titled "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) has once again fallen upon betrayal and misfortune. He had begun to embrace his love for his friend, Edward Nygma (The Riddler) but Ed was in love with a woman and oblivious to Oswald's infatuation with him. Unfortunately Oswald had acted upon his jealousy of Isabella and had her murdered. Ed has figured out Oswald's action and is now seeking revenge by sabotaging Oswald's leadership as mayor of Gotham and systematically taking away everything he cares about, making him suffer as Ed has.
Ed's fellow conspirators capture and try to get Oswald to betray Ed as his own act of revenge for Ed's actions against him. But Oswald remembers that Ed had previously said that "love is sacrifice" and yet he had killed Isabella, unwilling to share Ed. Oswald realizes that he should have been able to sacrifice his own happiness so that Ed could be happy. Oswald now infuriates Ed and his fellow villains by refusing to betray Ed once again; he realizes now that he had acted selfishly before by putting his own desires ahead of Ed's happiness and he is not willing to make the same mistake again.
The light bulb clicks in Oswald's head when he suddenly understands Ed's description of love as sacrifice. His selfishness when it comes to Ed dissolves and his PASSION now turns to a willingness to sacrifice, to suffer, for his love. Sadly, he comes to this realization way too late. The relationship is too far damaged and Oswald's very life may be forfeit.
This idea of PASSION and love involving, and even requiring sacrifice and suffering goes way further back than "Gotham". The bizarre friendship and man-crush love story of The Penguin and The Riddler pales in comparison, of course, to another love story that is often described as The Passion.
The word PASSION actually comes from the Latin word passio, or "suffering", and was first used sometime around the 2nd century A.D. describing the events surrounding the last days of Jesus on Earth. His prayer at Gethsemane, betrayal, arrest, beatings, crucifixion, death and burial. The climactic events leading to what Jesus's life on Earth was all about: the Cross and the Resurrection.
The Latin was, over time, influenced by the Old English, the Normans, the French, and once it was used in multiple languages it began to take on some of the other, broader meanings we are often familiar with now. It went from a meaning rooted in suffering and affliction leading to martyrdom to also include any strong emotion.
PASSION is not simply being excited and energized though. It is not the experience of a fan cheering from the stands as their favorite team scores big at the last moment and wins a championship game. It is not wild and carefree worship. It is not simply being madly in love, doting or hot-to-trot. PASSION is not simply love; it goes deeper than that and so many of the emotions and actions we link with that. In fact, I propose, it seems that PASSION is the exact opposite of many of the things we often view it as.
PASSION is a radical, whole-hearted, faithful, long-suffering commitment. A deeper love, a love willing to go to the Cross, to give one's self away. A willingness to give of yourself, to sacrifice, to suffer, for the person or thing that you love. As a result it does not show up merely in the throngs of wildly excited crowds or excited social media posts. It is a willingness to serve. It may not even be recognizable in someone's face or posture if you aren't looking thru the correct lens. It often goes unnoticed in the every day actions of faithfully giving away of yourself, your resources, your time, your love for the investment in the thing for which you are passionate.
PASSION, for Jesus, was not the mass crowds, the astonishing miracles, the teaching and preaching and debating. PASSION was not only in the urgent prayers at Gethsemane, the betrayal, arrest, the beatings, the crucifixion, the death, but also in that moment approaching Jerusalem, where Jesus resolutely moved forward on that agonizingly lonely destiny. Knowing what was before Him, "Oh, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you together..." He knew what was ahead but He did not panic or turn away, He knew the suffering and sacrifice that was ahead, but he faithfully committed to staying the course when He, God Himself, could have done otherwise.
God chose all of this. For the sake of love, He put others--us--first. That was PASSION.
In the season three episode of the television show "GOTHAM" titled "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) has once again fallen upon betrayal and misfortune. He had begun to embrace his love for his friend, Edward Nygma (The Riddler) but Ed was in love with a woman and oblivious to Oswald's infatuation with him. Unfortunately Oswald had acted upon his jealousy of Isabella and had her murdered. Ed has figured out Oswald's action and is now seeking revenge by sabotaging Oswald's leadership as mayor of Gotham and systematically taking away everything he cares about, making him suffer as Ed has.
Ed's fellow conspirators capture and try to get Oswald to betray Ed as his own act of revenge for Ed's actions against him. But Oswald remembers that Ed had previously said that "love is sacrifice" and yet he had killed Isabella, unwilling to share Ed. Oswald realizes that he should have been able to sacrifice his own happiness so that Ed could be happy. Oswald now infuriates Ed and his fellow villains by refusing to betray Ed once again; he realizes now that he had acted selfishly before by putting his own desires ahead of Ed's happiness and he is not willing to make the same mistake again.
The light bulb clicks in Oswald's head when he suddenly understands Ed's description of love as sacrifice. His selfishness when it comes to Ed dissolves and his PASSION now turns to a willingness to sacrifice, to suffer, for his love. Sadly, he comes to this realization way too late. The relationship is too far damaged and Oswald's very life may be forfeit.
This idea of PASSION and love involving, and even requiring sacrifice and suffering goes way further back than "Gotham". The bizarre friendship and man-crush love story of The Penguin and The Riddler pales in comparison, of course, to another love story that is often described as The Passion.
The word PASSION actually comes from the Latin word passio, or "suffering", and was first used sometime around the 2nd century A.D. describing the events surrounding the last days of Jesus on Earth. His prayer at Gethsemane, betrayal, arrest, beatings, crucifixion, death and burial. The climactic events leading to what Jesus's life on Earth was all about: the Cross and the Resurrection.
The Latin was, over time, influenced by the Old English, the Normans, the French, and once it was used in multiple languages it began to take on some of the other, broader meanings we are often familiar with now. It went from a meaning rooted in suffering and affliction leading to martyrdom to also include any strong emotion.
PASSION is not simply being excited and energized though. It is not the experience of a fan cheering from the stands as their favorite team scores big at the last moment and wins a championship game. It is not wild and carefree worship. It is not simply being madly in love, doting or hot-to-trot. PASSION is not simply love; it goes deeper than that and so many of the emotions and actions we link with that. In fact, I propose, it seems that PASSION is the exact opposite of many of the things we often view it as.
PASSION is a radical, whole-hearted, faithful, long-suffering commitment. A deeper love, a love willing to go to the Cross, to give one's self away. A willingness to give of yourself, to sacrifice, to suffer, for the person or thing that you love. As a result it does not show up merely in the throngs of wildly excited crowds or excited social media posts. It is a willingness to serve. It may not even be recognizable in someone's face or posture if you aren't looking thru the correct lens. It often goes unnoticed in the every day actions of faithfully giving away of yourself, your resources, your time, your love for the investment in the thing for which you are passionate.
PASSION, for Jesus, was not the mass crowds, the astonishing miracles, the teaching and preaching and debating. PASSION was not only in the urgent prayers at Gethsemane, the betrayal, arrest, the beatings, the crucifixion, the death, but also in that moment approaching Jerusalem, where Jesus resolutely moved forward on that agonizingly lonely destiny. Knowing what was before Him, "Oh, Jerusalem, how I long to gather you together..." He knew what was ahead but He did not panic or turn away, He knew the suffering and sacrifice that was ahead, but he faithfully committed to staying the course when He, God Himself, could have done otherwise.
God chose all of this. For the sake of love, He put others--us--first. That was PASSION.
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