Good Friday Year B

Good Friday,  Year B

Is 52, 13- 53, 12; 

He 4, 4-16, 5-9: 

Gos: Jn 18, 1-19, 42  

     

Today is Good Friday. On Palm Sunday we began the mystery of our Holy Week celebrations, when Jesus willing and lovingly entered Jerusalem, on a donkey, to suffer and die for us.  That love-journey culminates on the Cross of Christ, and it’s ironic and redeeming power that we celebrate today.

But what is good about this Good Friday? What is good about a day that someone was innocently condemned to death and crucified? A day that we are not to celebrate; a day we are asked to abstain from all the goodies of life; a day when God was crucified; a day when the hopes of those who looked up to Jesus as the Christ and Messiah were shattered; a day that everyone is expected to leave the church mournful and silent; and a day when the altar of the Almighty God is reaped of its beautiful decorations and laid bare.

Good Friday is the Friday within Holy Week. The first shot at the question is that without this day (not doubting the power or the ability of God the Father to use any other means to accomplish his mission) perhaps, there would have been no salvation for humanity. This is because, had Christ not died, there would not have been washing away of our sins (John 16, 3; Rom 5, 8). So it is good because, it is a blessing in disguise. It is actually on this day that the devil was put to shame and the power of death was defeated. Hence, Paul asked: “death where is your sting, death where is your power?” (I Cor 15, 55). According to the Catholic Catechism: “Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men” (CCC 1992).

Secondly, it is on this day that the barriers preventing all the saints of the church from entering the holy of holies is torn apart (Mt 27, 51). Thirdly, it is on this day that the journey of salvation is actually instituted. In fact some scholars consider this day more important than Easter Sunday, for they feel that without this day, the Christ event of Easter Sunday would not have been feasible. The term Good Friday and the activities that surround it could be likened to one of the lines in the Exultet song during the Easter Vigil Mass which describes the fall of Adam and Eve as:  “Oh, what a happy fall.” So, just as the fall of Adam and Eve helped in fulfilling the salvific plan of God, so also does the sacrifice and death of Jesu Christ on Good Friday not only help in fulfilling the salvific plan of God, but is, in itself the fullness and the highest point in this plan. It is a day when the “drama script” written by God is fully “directed and acted out” by Christ his Son. Even though on this day there appeared to be the absence of God by human reckoning, God was fully present and somewhere beaming with smiles as his son accomplished his mission for the salvation of humanity. Indeed, it is a Good Friday!

What is good about the altars left completely bare, without a crosses, without candles and without fanciful altar cloths? What is good that the Holy Mass, sacraments are not celebrated today, except for penance and anointing of the sick, are legitimates questions? Answers to these questions are not single dimensional. The meaning of “Good Friday” may be found when we deeply and faithfully meditate on the crosses we shall soon venerate. Its meaning may be revealed through our meditation on the stations of the cross re-enacted across the global church.  Still its meaning may be revealed through the writings of the Church Fathers, Encyclicals and Apostolic Letters of various Popes.

The central object today is the Cross. It will thus be worthwhile to dwell more profoundly on the Cross of Calvary. There are two prominent platforms in the whole of the bible: the tree at the middle of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:16-17) and the tree of the Cross of Jesus Christ (I Pet.2:24; Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29). The Cross functions in undoing the powers and effects of the tree at the middle of the garden. The tree was attractive to the eyes but its fruits led humanity to disconnection from God. The cross on the other hand had no attraction (the only fruit is the one crucified on it, Jesus Christ). It is despised by all but through it humanity is redeemed and reconnected with God. Hence our Lord Jesus Christ would say: “when I am lifted up I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

This simply means that the tree at the middle of the Garden of Eden dispersed all people from God, but the Cross of Jesus Christ in the middle of sinners (represented by the two thieves; crucified on his left and right) brought humanity back to God. Humanity failed God by the tree at the middle of the garden and humanity got redemption by the tree of the Cross at the middle of sinners. Satan seduced humanity by the old tree but on the platform of the cross (the new tree) Satan was defeated.

By the old tree God pronounced curses and human nature was wounded, but by the new tree humanity received blessings and healing. By the old tree of Eden, Adam and Eve were chased out but through the new tree we received divine convocation (Jn 12:32). The Cross from all indications is the symbol of our victory. No wonder then we have today the ceremony of the veneration of the Cross. The Cross is not merely a heavy load, it is not merely a symbol of suffering and death. Above all these, it is a plus sign, it is a salvific ladder, and it is also a warfare arsenal.

Having explored all that was done for our sake, the pertinent question would be; “How can we repay the Lord what he did for us?” One thing that comes to mind at this point is that we should endeavour to suffer with Him. We should be ready to walk the walk with him.

In a certain Parish, an elderly Priest was leading the Stations of the Cross on a Good Friday along a rocky and rough road beside the parish. At the third station which marked the first fall of Jesus Christ, the Priest inadvertently struck his foot against a piece of rock and fell face-down and had his face bruised. The processing parishioners were moved by empathy at the sudden fall of their elderly Priest and spontaneously, emotional shouts were heard from among the people. The next challenge was if the priest should continue leading the Way of the Cross or hand over to another person. On his part the priest would have wished to discontinue, but upon remembering and pondering upon what Jesus Christ steadfastly underwent on the Way to the Cross for us, he dismissed the idea of stopping and continued with a renewed strength till the end; though still wearing a bruised and blood stained face.

During the shooting of the life changing movie “The Passion of the Christ” by Mel Gibson (2004), the man who acted Jesus, Jim Caviezel, confessed that Jesus Christ must have suffered more than we actually imagined. Mel Gibson wanted to make the movie as real as possible so he tried to use the actual things used by the Roman Soldiers at the time to punish criminals. For flogging they used a whip (flagrum) which had several strands on which are attached pieces of bones and irons. The Jewish flogging then was thirty-nine times (2nd Cor. 11:24) but the Roman soldiers had no limit. When they flog, the bones and irons would be dug into the body and they would draw the whip letting out blood. During the movie they used the same whip but covered the body of Jim. However it happened once that the elastic covering shifted and the whip landed on the bare body of the actor. The impact was so much that the shooting of the movie was suspended to allow Jim Caviezel to recover.

From the instances we have above, it will be worthwhile for us to be patient in our suffering (Romans 12:12). And as St. Paul made us to know, if we suffer with Christ we are sure that we shall also be glorified with him (Romans 8:17; 2 Tim.2:12).