Passion play at Oberammergau

  What’s the major attraction of Oberammergau, a municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria, Germany? It’s famous for its woodcarvers and the NATO School. The town is also famous for its production of a Passion play, the story of Jesus Christ for the audiences that flock in from around the world.

About half the inhabitants of Oberammergau take part in the once-a-decade, seven-hour long Passion Play which started in 1634. As the last play was in the year 2010, the next one will be staged in 2020. About half the inhabitants of Oberammergau take part in the play. The play starts with Jesus entering Jerusalem, continues with his death on the cross and finishes with the resurrection. Such dramatic portrayals may be crowd pullers, but many of them are missing the woods for trees.

  Miniature forms of such Passion plays are held in various countries across the world. If I’m not mistaken, the Syro-Malabar Catholic church has its own version of a play being performed by a group in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese in Kerala, India.  Besides, there are dramatical presentation of the stations of the Way of the Cross in several places. You can see actors resembling Jesus in a long robe carrying the cross and soldiers in traditional Roman attires on the roads. You can also see Veronica, Mother Mary etc also accompanying the Jesus in the presentation. Such vivid portrayals may appeal to the people.

  St Thomas the Apostle is believed to have stopped at Malayattoor, a village in the North-eastern corner of Ernakulam district in Kerala, South India, on his way to Mylapore in Tamil Nadu. You can see hundreds of faithful undertaking walking pilgrimages to the small church atop a mountain.

  Such walking pilgrimages and climbing the mountains reciting hymns, prayers and the Way of the Cross are common these days. If you have seen the real Calvary in Israel, there’s no mountain there. In fact, people conduct Way of the Cross to Calvary through a crowded market near Jerusalem, with very little space to move around. My intention is not to portray such pilgrimages and climbing of hills as a bad idea or waste of time. They are good deeds and many undertake it as penance or as an occasion for reflection and rectification of their lives. 

 Does a more dramatic liturgy appeal to larger number of people? Do such plays and presentations have a greater spiritual impact, and represent a more appropriate idiom for the Church’s worship in the 21st century? Not necessary.

 According to Msgr M. Francis Mannion, the need to dramatize and recapture the historical events of Christ's death and resurrection is an important feature of Christian life.  However, in a passion play, the event of our attention remains in great part in the past, and we are spectators. 

 “In the Holy Week liturgy, the event stands in the present, and we are participants. Knowing the difference between the two is the basis of the profound and vital spirituality that is crucial to the fruitful celebration of Holy Week and Easter,” Msgr Mannion, who is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul parish in Salt Lake City, US, wrote in his column.

  He said faithful carry palms not merely for historical reasons, but as a sign of their present commitment to Christ. The Holy Week liturgy does not merely help the Church cast its mind back to Jerusalem and Calvary.  The function of the liturgy of Holy Week is to celebrate what God in Christ is doing now, today among his people.

On Good Friday, the liturgy calls to mind the terrible events of Christ's crucifixion. “But the solemn Good Friday liturgy is infinitely richer and more significant than any passion play or historical drama.  Its purpose is not only to call to mind the original event of Calvary, but to recognize and celebrate the Cross being lived out today in the church and in the world,” Msgr Mannion wrote in the report.

 According to Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men”. He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross and follow [him]", for "Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps." In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

  This should be etched in our memory when we go to Passion plays and mountain climbing.