It Seems As Though Nothing About This Day Makes Sense. Here We Are Celebrating the Death of a Man Who Failed Dramatically in T

Fr Andrew_Good Friday Reflection

It seems as though nothing about this day makes sense. Here we are celebrating the death of a man who failed dramatically in the eyes of the world-a man from a place of obscurity who preached a radical message that God’s Kingdom was here, and in so doing, garnered the hopes of many people; a man whom many thought would restore Israel and overthrown the oppressive Roman Empire; a man who worked great miracles and healed others, yet did not defend himself against the accusations thrown at him; a man who affirmed others’ proclamations that He was God’s own anointed one-the Christ, the long- awaited Messiah-yet was abandoned by most of His followers and left to die a humiliating death on a cross; another failed leader, like so many others before Him and after Him. “Jesus, the Nazorean, the King of the Jews”—the sign above His lifeless body seems more a mockery than a declaration. And we are celebrating this day in a way that makes no sense-separated from one another, not out of choice but out of love; struggling with the uncertainty that tomorrow will bring; fearful of an invisible illness affecting innocent people; grieving so much loss in our world; unsure of just when life will ever be back to ‘normal.’ Together with our Lord, the cross feels exorbitantly heavy.

Yet in the midst of a day that makes no sense, the central paradox of our faith is revealed to us, as we behold our Lord in His Passion, on the cross. For in the midst of such darkness, we behold a love so unexpected, so inexplicable, so beyond any reasonable or rational measure, that it transforms an instrument of torture-the cross-into the very means of salvation. In Jesus’s cross, we find not the humiliating death of an

1 innocent man or the failure of a long-hoped for revolutionary, but rather, the greatest act of love the world has ever seen; an act of love that sets us free!

In taking up His cross and freely giving Himself up to death, Jesus, the Son of

God, not only finds His exaltation and glory, but He shows us that true greatness and glory come in giving ourselves away for others, completely defying what could ever be expected, whatever would be rational or reasonable.

By emptying Himself on the cross, Jesus, the spotless lamb, offers Himself up to the Father for us, for our weaknesses, for our sufferings, for our sins. “Yet it was for our infirmities that he bore”-the prophet Isaiah tells us- “our sufferings that he endured,”; “he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.” For divine love knows that this day of suffering and death is not the end; rather, it is the path from which new life flows, a life of reconciliation with God! And Jesus freely lays down His life for us; He, our King, whom John the Evangelist depicts as in complete control of the Passion He undergoes.

What is now finished in Jesus’s death is the beginning of a new, transformed world, in which God’s invitation to share His own life with each one of us is forever made real! Wherever life finds us today, we stand together at the foot of Jesus’s cross, gazing upon divine love made real, made tangible through this man. As Pilate declares

“Ecce Homo”-“Behold the man” to the crowds in presenting Jesus to them, we behold

Him in His perfect act of self-giving love. And from His lifeless body on the cross, blood and water flow forth, pointing to the waters of our baptism and the blood of the Eucharist from which His Spirit is forever communicated to us through His Church.

From Jesus’s death, we forever share in His life, and every day is an opportunity to more deeply unite ourselves with Him. Every day is an opportunity for us to more deeply love each other, more authentically accompany each other through the challenges and darkness we experience, and more genuinely carry each other’s crosses. For as we carry each other’s cross, we carry Christ’s own cross—“whatsoever you do to the least one of these, you do unto me,” He tells us. And as we behold our King on His cross, we are called to behold Him in one another, particularly those most vulnerable among us.

We behold Him as we lift each other up into a greater sense of God’s merciful love-a love that defies every limit, a love that defies every barrier.

The only thing that makes sense of the agony of the cross is love-pure, divine, self-giving, love; love that seeks not its own gain, but the good of others. For it is only love that overcomes darkness and death, it is only love that forgives unconditionally, and it is only love that leads us from this day on Calvary into the resurrection and new life that we find with Him. Ecce homo-may we always behold the man, our King!