Good Friday 2016

Good Friday is a day of sober reflection. Our Lord Jesus Christ is led like a lamb to the slaughter (Is 53:7). He is nailed to the cross. He is hanging on a tree. Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God (Is 53:4). The good Shepherd willingly lays down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11).  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 (Jn 10:18).

Today Jesus Christ is betrayed by one of his closest friends- Judas. He is vehemently denied by Peter three times. He is abandoned by the rest of the fearful disciples. He is unjustly tried and condemned. He is violently slapped on the Cheek.  He is severely scourged by the pillar and his body covered with lacerating wounds. He is crowned with thorns and his adorable face covered with blood. He is nailed to the cross. He is insulted by the soldiers and heartless mob. Finally he screamed: “it is finished”. He gave up his spirit.  He is pierced through with a lance, blood and water flowed from his side.

Only sacrificial love can explain the meaning and purpose of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus. Only an infinite, boundless love can explain the fact that God came to this sinful world to die for our sins.  Greater love than this no one has, for a man to lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13). St Paul tells us: it is very difficult for a man to die for his friend. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). “It is love to the end that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life" (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 616). St Paul of Cross says “the passion of Christ is the greatest and most stupendous work of Divine love. The greatest and most overwhelming work of God’s love.”

We see Jesus hanging on the cross, in agonizing and excruciating pain, his whole body covered with blood.  Jesus does not need our pity or sympathy.  What Jesus wants is our conversion, a change of heart, a contrite spirit. Let us remember that it is our sins that nailed him to the cross. We will be the most ungrateful people, if we see Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross and we ignore his suffering and death, and continue living in sin. True reverence for the Lord’s suffering and death means conversion. The commitment to new life in Christ is the best way we can show gratitude to Jesus for the hefty price he paid for our sins.