Friday, April 10, 2020, Good Friday

The Passion read at Mass this day is that of John 18, 1 — 19, 42.  

In his account of the Passion of our Lord, St. John shows Jesus as one who is unperturbed and commanding.  He is the hero who suffers and dies, but exhibits no pain that he felt, who hides his agony in his courage.  He is forced into no action.  Compared with him, all the other figures in John’s account are present, but it is Christ who is the prime actor.  His enemies appear unsteady, if not insignificant.  The men who come to arrest him fall before him at the sound of his voice.  It is clear that if Jesus does not choose to go with them, their mission will fail.  Jesus stands before the high priest and Pontus Pilate as their superior, even when he endures their abuse.  He gives orders, even on the Cross.  In all this, we see the nobility of his character and glimpse his divinity.

The strength he shows helps us to see how much he suffered.  He maintains his calm composure in part in order to strengthen such of his followers who remained to him, principally his Mother.  He also does this in order to assure us that he willingly, lovingly, offers the Sacrifice of his life for us.  It beggars the imagination to see how a man who was betrayed, beaten, scourged, forced to carry a heavy cross, and then nailed to it, could do what he did here.

And yet the sufferings of his mind and soul were far greater than those of his lacerated Body.  He saw his most innocent and heartfelt offer of love rejected with hatred, the work of his miracles thrown in his face, his Father insulted through the people’s rejection of the One he sent.  In Luke’s Gospel we see the Blood that issues from his pores at Gethsemane as a result of his utter heartbreak.  And yet, never a word of complaint.  Even the words he speaks to the Father from the Cross, “My God, my God, why haven’t you forsaken me?” is not a complaint or an admission of the cost he is paying for our sins.  He is praying Psalm 22, and he does so aloud in order to show us how he has fulfilled the Scriptures, and also to show that his Death is not the end, for the psalm concludes with words or praise and thanksgiving and the Psalmist declares, “I will tell of your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

Let us meditate deeply on the sufferings of our Lord on this Good Friday so that we may draw nearer to the Heart that offers us the unconditional love and mercy of God.