Reflection on the Passionists’ Sign

Reflection on the Passionists’ Sign

I guess whoever knows of the Passionists will remember the Passionists’ Sign. This is a sign for acknowledging a Passionist because we wear the Holy Name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ on our clothes, our chest, and in our hearts. I am sure, each Passionist will have a different reflection when he looks at the Sign. It is true that we can look at the Sign from top to bottom, we can see the images of three circles, the Holy Cross, the name of Jesus in the Latin Alphabet of Hebrew, an acronym of Christ in Greek within a heart and three nails.
For me, those images become a mathematics addition which shows my reflection on the Passionist Sign rather than an official explanation of it.

I start with three circles which can be seen as the image of the Holy Trinity. I can imagine it as community life into which the Passionist was called. Indeed, three persons but only one substance, one God but three persons, such as a clover or a chord with three notes or an equilateral triangle. This is also the image of a basic community with three members. Our founder Saint Paul of the Cross, on the deathbed, also reminds us of community first. This is the very first call of the Passionists: Community Life.
Then, I have the addition of the image of the Holy Cross as a plus sign. I wonder, how can the invariant Trinity add anything else? I think everything is possible with the Holy Cross which holds the Savior on it. On this image, the Son of God incarnate gets humanity to ‘pitch a tent’, to be with human being. The Church does not have any official claim on what added to the Holy Trinity in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, we can imagine that the Holy Trinity adds something because of the Holy Cross. Just like the infinity concept, infinity is still infinity whatever we add in, even add infinity. This is also the call for the Passionists who practice meditation on the Holy Cross one hour per day.
I continue with the image of the love heart. This is a special love, the Passion Love. Because, Passion means a love accepting sacrifice and suffering. In human experience, if we have passion for something, we must sacrifice a lot of things and accept the challenges. For example, if we want to be a best student, we should study hard; if we have passion love for someone, we sacrifice and accept the suffering so our lover can be happy; if we are passionate for the Resurrection, we should walk through the Passion. In fact, the Passion love is not imagination alone, but there is really Passion Love in Jesus Christ. He who is God and is human being, willingly accepted everything that faced Him because of Love, a Passion Love. This can be mentioned as something added to the Holy Trinity. This is also a love invitation for each one of Passionists.
To sum up, there is no equation with equal sign but triple dash sign which made out of three nails. This is the sign of relationships, the relationships among Trinity, the relationships of God with human being, the relationships of Jesus Christ with each one of us. Furthermore, there is invitation for each one of Passionist for involving the Holy Trinity to contemplate and embody in our life the Passion Love. Therefore, the Passionists be ready to accept all sufferings to become a Suffering Servant of God as our Lord, Jesus Christs.
May the Passion Love through the Passionist Sign always bring passion to each of us.


JD Tân T. C.P.

#beapassionist