My dear sisters and brothers, in this second liturgy of the Sacred Triduum of our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection we enter into the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. All around the world, this Good Friday Liturgy draws people in great number. Something happens here that resonates with our human experience. In hearing the story of Jesus’ suffering and death we somehow identify a connection with Jesus and our own lives. And we find comfort and assurance.
My dear sisters and brothers, in this second liturgy of the Sacred Triduum of our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection we enter into the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. All around the world, this Good Friday Liturgy draws people in great number. Something happens here that resonates with our human experience. In hearing the story of Jesus’ suffering and death we somehow identify a connection with Jesus and our own lives. And we find comfort and assurance.
Isaiah, the Old Testament Prophet, wrote about the Servant of God who suffered greatly, who“poured out himself to death”as he bore the sins and iniquities of many. The Church has recognized Jesus in the prophetic words of Isaiah, for Jesus through his death has become“the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
Jesus hasborne our infirmities and carried our diseases. . . he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.
We know how much we need to be healed. We know our iniquities and we bear the bruises of life’s struggles. Jesus’ death on the cross declares to us that he accepted this death so that we might live. Truly he died for us and here today we sense the magnitude of what has been done for us.
The British author Graham Greene wrote a great book entitled “The Power and the Glory.” It is about the struggles of a priest with his calling. Greene writes:
“How often the priest had heard the same confession–Man was so limited: he hadn’t even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization–it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.”
On Calvary, Jesus, the beloved Son of God, God himself, chose to die for us. He chose to take upon himself all our weaknesses and failing, our transgressions, our iniquities and he bore our punishment and allowed sinful people to crush him with pain.
In St. John the Evangelist’s telling of the Passion of Christ, it is clear that Jesus is not a powerless victim. Nothing happens to him that he does not permit. He bears God’s name and soldiers fall to the ground when he identifies himself. He gives Pilate power over him. He lays down his life, it is not taken from him. As he said when he described himself as the Good Shepherd of his flock: I lay down my life for my sheep… “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” (Jn 18: 24)
All of this, Jesus has done for us, deliberately and purposefully. We, who because of our sinful nature had not power to live, by Jesus’ death will be given the power to live forever.
How can we respond to this great love, proven to us in the shedding of his blood for us? I believe that more than anything else, we need to be grateful. And if we give anything to God in return for what God has given us, it must be our gratitude.
So I invite you, on this Good Friday, to spend a little time reflecting on the ways that Jesus the Christ has touched your life with these gifts and think about how you can express to him your gratitude – what each of us can give to Him in return for all He has given to us.
