The Passion of God

Good Friday
April 9, 2009
The Passion of God

Good Friday is a celebration that has two fundamental truths: First of all Jesus really died. God cannot die, but Jesus was also true man and shared the fate of us all. It’s a fact that He entered human history and he died on the cross in Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago.

What is the second basic truth of Good Friday? Not only did Jesus die young but He was murdered. Jesus was a good young man in his early thirties (just two years older than me), doing great work, teaching, healing, and forming communities. Jesus was innocently murdered on the Cross during the prime of His life!

We ask why the anniversary of such a sad and terrible event is called “good?” What “good” is there when such an innocent man killed in cold blood? It is as if we are delighted by the death of Jesus to call this day “Good Friday.” Is there really something good we have to celebrate for this grim fate of Jesus?

Pope Benedict said in his Holy Week reflection, “Christ's death recalls the mass of pain and evil weighing upon humanity in every epoch: the crushing weight of our own mortality, the hatred and violence which still bloody the earth today. The Lord's passion continues in the suffering of mankind,"

If there is anything “good” at the brutal death of Jesus, that is He did not die in vain. His death is life-giving. The first reading from the book of Isaiah tells us why of all Fridays today is called “Good Friday:” On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.

Pope Benedict continued in his reflection, "If Good Friday is a day full of sadness, it is at the same time the best day on which to reawaken our faith, to strengthen our hope and the courage to carry our cross with humility and trust, abandoning ourselves to God in the certainty of His support and His victory."

Good Friday is Sacred
Today the Churches are stripped and there are no other liturgical celebrations provided until Easter vigil. The Church watches in prayer sharing the feelings of sorrowful Mary at the foot of the cross of her beloved Son.

While some people are grudging for being unable to shop, gamble or play sports today, we see Good Friday as central to our Christian faith. Today we venerate saving Cross of Jesus. We give honor to the Cross of Jesus because it gives people hope in despair, and it gives meaning to our suffering. Let us not allow consumerism to highjack Good Friday as one of the few sacred and reflective days we have remaining on our yearly calendar.

Good Friday is sacred. Today is the opportune time to recall the Passion of Christ. When we speak of the passion of Christ, what immediately come to our mind are the pains He endured, the sufferings He bore and the death that He courageously faced. As far as many of us are concerned, our immediate thought about the passion of Jesus is what was done to Him physically and emotionally – by his closed friends, by the soldiers, by the people in authority, in religion and government.

Jesus’ Passion
Yet, there is another passion we must think of today, it’s the strong “passion” of Jesus to obey the will of the Father. Jesus had a strong passion to give His life for us; He had a strong passion to show the human face of God to us.

The Pope explained in his Holy Week reflection how Jesus did not wish to use the fact of His being God, His glorious dignity and His power, as an instrument of triumph and a sign of distance. Out of love for us, "He wished to 'empty Himself' and become our brother. For love, He shared our condition, the condition of all men and women. On the contrary, 'he emptied himself' assuming our miserable and weak human condition."

Whenever we are tempted to doubt, or when we feel weighed down, or worried that God will be too strict, or wonder whether God will ever forgive us, the image of Jesus on the Cross should remind us God’s passionate love for us.

Questions
As we reflect on Jesus’ passion today, let us ask ourselves these questions: First, do we still have our passion for God? Do we still have our passion for the good, for the holy and for morality? Are we now turning cold? Are we still on fire with love to serve and to live according to the teachings of the Church? Do we still have that passion in our life? If we say yes, do we have enough proof to show this in our parish community?

If today we realise that what cold fools we have become, it is not time to retreat and feel rejected. It is definitely not the time to walk away ashamed of our lukewarm hearts and hard consciences. But Good Friday is the time we humbly bring our nothingness to Jesus. That is why Jesus came. That is why He suffered and died. That is the reason for the Passion.

He is at the Cross with arms outstretched waiting for any of us whose hearts have turned cold, numb, hesitant or afraid to come back. All we need to do is to come back to Him with all our hearts, with no fear of rebuke. Remember, he has a passion for the wounded, he has a passion for the sick in mind and body and yes, the lukewarm.

Let us use this opportunity this Good Friday to rekindle in our hearts our passion of love for the Lord. As we come to venerate the Cross, we will offer to our Lord our secret sufferings, and let us imagine how much we are loved by God, how much God wants to give Himself to us in love.

And finally, if you want to follow Jesus and be like him, and like the Father before him, you too, must have this passion to give yourself away. Remembering his own words, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”





Reading: Jesus Our Light by Bishop Socrates Villegas pp 124-126