Below is the 'Thinking Anew' column in yesterday's 'Irish Times'.

Every year we read the Passion account but it is so easy to play the role of spectator, and so it is possible that it might never impinge on us.

The Passion tells the story of the human condition and nothing seems to change.

In Ireland not too long ago it was part of the daily staple to hear that the Irish State and the Catholic Church were the one true way for us to find our national and eternal salvation. And if you did not subscribe to that shocking vision of life you might easily be marginalised, laughed at and bullied. Maybe even worse, there was a lurking belief that the new Ireland had a special relationship to Catholicism and so a unique link with God.

Last week in Ireland we had the perfect simulation of  aspects of the reality that brought about the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. Early in the week we had the church leaders turn and squirm, and just two days later it was the turn of political leaders.

Both groups had been discovered in the court of public opinion to have lied and cheated. The public outrage is not with human failings but rather with the cover up and lies that both groups have been able to perpetrate becasue of their power and privilege.

The story right through the Gospels explains to the reader how the poor and marginalised are brutalised by the powerful and privileged. And that story is particularly redolent in the Passion account of Jesus.

In tomorrow's reading of the Passion, Mark explains over and over how Jesus is bullied, bruised and destroyed by the ruling classes. They use every trick in the book to destroy him. And in the end it appears they succeed.

But this marginalised man is Jesus, the One who has the power of resurrection and actually offers it to us too.

The story of the Passion is the story of Everyman. Why should we expect it to be any different?

The high priests in their 'phalacteries' and the state leaders displaying another style of power and oppulence will always try to keep the small and marginalised person in his or her box. It's the way of the world.

There is always the danger that we place false hope in human beings, no matter who they are or whom they represent.

But like all human beings they too are failed. And we need to realise that. Leadership gives no-one that power or authroity to lord it over others.

Christians, especifically Anglicans and Catholics, believe that Christ is present in the world, especailly through the sacraments and the sacraments are ordered and administered by the institutional church. Priesthood is a participation in the priesthood of Christ but that never gives the ordained priest a licence to abandon the law of God's love. Indeed, it should strengthen the resolve to care for the weak and marginalised.

In the Irish political world, we the people created the gombeen politicians. And Christians too, may well have created the gombeen church apparatchiks.

This Holy Week might be an apposite time to treat the liturgy not as a command performance but as a clear and vivid enactment of what happens when we stop thinking and place far too much power in the hands of all types of priestly classes.

Yes to the sacraments and church but we can never ever sit back and stay passive. While it might be tempting to allow priests to organise in an exclusive way the runnning of our church, it is very far from the story the Gospels tell us. We, the people, are the people of God and have an essential role to play in the effort of bringing about the kingdom of God.

Tomorrow's Passion account is an extraordinary call to all of us to ask critical questions about all ruling classes - spiritual and temporal.

There is no place in the Christian vision for complacency, allowing those in positions of authority to lord it over others. We can never be lured to believing in a silly piosity that turns the ruling classes into gombeen people.

Last week the affairs of church and state showed us so clearly the shocking reality of the Passion.

This Holy Week is an opportunity for us to realise that while we are always vulnerable to corruption and wrong-doing, we believe that the power of the cross and the subsequent resurrection offer us unparalleled hope in our salvation.

The Passion is about the abuse of power. The Resurrection is about our hope in goodness and God is goodness.

MIchael Commane OP