Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12,
Psalm 31:2 and 6.12-13.15- 16.17,
Hebrews 4: 14-16; 5 :7-9,
John 18: I-19:42 Full Readings
Saint Francis of Paola
A Man Despised by Many But he is the Saviour
Brethren, today is the Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion which takes place about three o’clock, unless pastoral reasons suggest a later hour. The celebration consists of three parts, namely Liturgy of the Word, the Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion. Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion is a day of penance for the whole Church, to be marked by fasting and abstinence from meat. No mass is celebrated that day. Today is called Good Friday. Why is it called Good Friday while it's a dark day when Jesus died? For us Catholics, we take this day to be “good” an alternative to “Holy” though there is death of Jesus because there is more of good in the death of Jesus and no evil in it. It's good because it is the day Christ "showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing."
Brethren, it is a dark Friday, the day is quiet, Judas had succeeded in betraying Jesus by a kiss (thereby misusing the greatest sign of love; Kiss is always for people who love each other, but Judas has misused it as a betrayal sign), Jesus has been arrested, has been tried in the eyes of many officials, sentenced to death, despised by many, and has died a shameful death, and is buried. The world has lost a prophet, it has lost a teacher, a miracle worker, and Mary has lost her Son, but this is not in vain, salvation has been attained for all through his death. God has shown his love for all humanity by giving his only one son to die for many and the gates of heaven are opened for all to enter as the veil of the temple is split, and for all who believe, eternal life awaits them in the kingdom of heaven, where Jesus Christ is the King forever, for his kingdom is not of this world.
No one to plead Jesus' cause, no one close to him any more, rejected and abandoned by his disciples, despised by many, Jesus takes his cross and dies for us. Brethren this is the highest kind of love one can ever receive and this is God's love. Jesus though he was despised by many, even hung naked on the cross, the most shameful act that ever happened to anybody, his thoughts are still on the people, the good thief, the prosecutors as he forgives them from there and then. By his suffering he bore all our sins and forgave us by his cross. It is an invitation to us to always look at the cross venerate it as a sign of our salvation. Under the feet of the cross let us always pray that as Jesus conquered death we may all conquer the world's pleasures and seek for the pleasures of the kingdom.
In the first reading, we see the forth song of the servant in Isaiah, and in this song continues and intensifies the theme of suffering, which many of its details are fulfilled in the passion narratives which we read in the Gospels. Jesus’ passion therefore, was foretold by Isaiah in this song of the suffering servant. Today we read the Gospel narrative of John, quite different from synoptics in many aspects, it puts more emphasis on theology than on storytelling.
The Johannine account is not the story of a condemned criminal being dragged to the disgraceful and tortured death reserved for slaves. Jesus is the majestic king, who proceeds royally to his triumph in death. There is no painful prayer for release in Gethsemane. From the beginning it is stressed that Jesus is fully aware of what is to happen. Before he can be arrested his captors repeatedly fall to the ground in an involuntary gesture of reverence at Jesus’s pronouncement of the divine name, “I am”. Jesus commands them to let his followers go, and is taken only when he gives the word (18:11). The humiliating elements of the other accounts, such as buffeting, spitting and the challenge to prophesy, have disappeared. Jesus is emphatically declared king in the three great world languages by the very man who condemns him to death (19:20-22). John even notes that the proclamation was publicly acknowledged by “many of the Jews”. not only is Jesus king; he continues his role as revealer and judge as well.
In the interview with Annas it is Jesus who challenges and questions the high priest, reiterating his own teaching which he has given for all the world to hear. Similarly at the trial before Pilate, Jesus questions the governor and shows his control, until Pilate collapses with the feeble evasion, “What is truth?” – a humiliating self-condemnation in this gospel of truth. The judgement reaches its climax when the Jewish leaders, in a formal and balanced scene, condemn themselves before Jesus: he is enthroned on the judgement seat as judge and crowned – with thorns – as king, still wearing the royal purple robe of his mockery, while they deny the very existence of Judaism by declaring, “We have no king but Caesar” (19:15). If the God of Israel is not a universal king, then Israel has no point or purpose.
The final scene has special significance. Jesus carries his own cross, unaided, and is enthroned on it – no agonising details of nailing and hoisting – between two attendants. There is no final psalm quotation of seeming despair (as in Mark and Matthew) or of resignation (as in Luke), no wordless “great cry” as Jesus expires. In John Jesus prepares the community of the future. In contrast to the other Gospels, Mary and the Beloved Disciple stand at the foot of the cross and are entrusted to each other’s care to constitute the first Christian community, the woman and the man, the mother and the ideal disciple. This is cemented by the gift of the Spirit, as Jesus – with typical Johannine ambiguity – “gave over his spirit”. Does this mean “breathed his last” or “gave them the Holy Spirit”? Only then does Jesus consent to die, with the words, “It is fulfilled”.
At the cross, Jesus gave us his mother Mary as the mother of all the church, let us always implore her intercession that through all difficult times she may help us to pass through them as she passed through the painful death of her son. May mother Mary always intercede for us to her son.
Brethren, let us keep watch and pray today, stay with Jesus as he dies on the cross, so that he may die with all our sins, and at resurrection bring new life to us. Let us keep looking at that cross, at his wounds and be healed and the water and blood which flowed from his side be a source of life and forgiveness of our sins. And may that love shown on the cross dwell in us always and forever.
Let Us Pray
I love you, Jesus, my love above all things, And I repent with my whole heart of having offended you. Never permit me to separate myself from you again, Grant that I may love you always, and then do with me what you will. Amen.
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