Good Friday, April 2, 2021

The Gospel reading today is the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John.

Just a few notes on St. John’s Passion.  When we hear it or read it today, we should pay attention to the majesty with which John presents the Lord throughout his sufferings.  We see the Lord utterly in command in the Garden of Gethsemane when the thugs come to arrest him.  The Lord completely maintains his composure while his enemies fall down and seem to lose heart.  We get the impression that the Lord could only have been arrested if he had positively willed it.  He is not so much brought to the Sanhedrin as that he goes along with the crowd to it.  He stands unimpressed by the chief priests.  When he is brought before Pilate, the procurator almost treats him as an equal.  He is clearly of a mind to release the Lord and hands him over for crucifixion only under great duress.  Then, hanging on the Cross, the Lord is the one on control, giving his Mother into the care of his Apostle John.  He is careful to fulfill even the last bit of Scripture, calling out, “I thirst”.  And then, as John tells us, “He gave up his spirit.”  That is, it was not taken from him, nor did it depart solely out of the weakness of his Body, but the Lord sent it forth.  He died because he willed to die.

Such is the dignity and majesty of our Savior even in his terrible sufferings.  In like manner we are called to live our lives, ever looking beyond this world to the blessed repose in the next, alongside our Lord.