LENT SERIES DAY 45: GOOD FRIDAY (9 Things to Know about Good Friday) (https://youtu.be/3YZ_g52daFQ)
Is 52:13—53:12.
Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Jn 18:1—19:42 Full Readings
Saint Ludovico of Casoria
Jesus, the Victorious King
Today is Good Friday, the Commemoration of the Lord's Passion as he shows us the greatest act of love to humanity. Good Friday 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 alternative for 'Holy' while it's a dark day when Jesus died because though there is death of Jesus, 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."
The Johannine account, read today, is not the story of a condemned criminal being dragged to the disgraceful and tortured death reserved for slaves. Jesus is the victorious, triumphant and 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 Pilate, 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 a 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 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, the Church. 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.” This is a story of a majestic king not a criminal who accomplishes what the Father had entrusted to him to do.
While every detail of this passion narrative reveals the love of God, a few important details will help us appreciate more Jesus' and God's act of love for humanity.
Jesus became a triumphant King not as the world kings become but by the cross. The Jews didn't really understand what kind of kingship Jesus claimed to have. Jesus came to conquer hearts and souls for an imperishable kingdom, rather than to conquer perishable lands and entitlements. He did this by dying on the Cross. Jesus' parting words, "It is finished!" express triumph rather than defeat. Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit knowing that the strife was now over, and the battle was won. Even on the cross Jesus knew the joy of victory. What the Father sent him into the world to do has now been accomplished. Christ offered himself without blemish to God and he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (see Hebrews 9:24-26).
This makes a Cross very fundamental in Christian life, one if the most powerful sacramentals in the Catholic Church. In the cross of Christ, we see the triumph of Jesus over his enemies - sin, Satan, and death. Many Christians down through the centuries have sung the praises of the Cross of Christ. Paul the Apostle exclaimed, "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). And thus, as Rupert of Deutz (1075-1129), a Benedictine abbot and theologian, wrote: "The cross of Christ is the door to heaven, the key to paradise, the downfall of the devil, the uplifting of mankind, the consolation of our imprisonment, the prize for our freedom."
The Cross of Christ is the safeguard of our faith, the assurance of our hope, and the throne of love. It is also the sign of God's mercy and the proof of forgiveness. By his cross Jesus Christ has pardoned us and set us free from the tyranny of sin. He paid the price for us when he made atonement for our sins. The way to peace, joy, and righteousness in the kingdom of God and the way to victory over sin and corruption, fear and defeat, despair and death is through the cross of Jesus Christ. This is the power of the cross of our triumphant and victorious King Jesus. Do you follow the Lord Jesus in his way of the cross with joy, hope, and confidence?
At the Cross, Jesus, the suffering servant, “was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquities. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Immediately after he handed over his spirit, he was pierced, and the signs of God’s Divine Mercy were released: “one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out” (John 19:34). Just as Adam’s bride was taken from a rib from his side during deep sleep (Genesis 2:21-22), the bride of Christ–the Church–was born from the Blood of the new covenant, the Eucharist, and the waters of Baptism that gushed from his side when he was in the deep sleep of death. Thus, today we start the novena in Commemoration of the Divine Mercy which will lead us to the celebration of the feast of Divine Mercy on the Sunday after Easter Sunday. We pray that God will continue to show the world his mercy just as he showed it through Jesus Christ by the water and blood which gushed from his side on the Cross.
Today, let us enter deep into the mysteries of Jesus' triumphant victory over sin, evil and death by his Cross. Let us move with him through his suffering and stand beneath his Cross like Mary and his beloved disciple, die with him in bodily desires, sin and evil we do, so that we will rise with him on Sunday with new life and light. At the Cross, Mary gave us his mother to be our mother too. May we always ask Mother Mary to intercede for us with her Son so that at last we may be with him in his heavenly kingdom.
Let us Pray.
Lord Jesus, may I stand with Your dear mother this day, dear Lord, and gaze with gratitude and awe on what You have done for me. By your death on the cross you have won pardon for us and freedom from the tyranny of sin and death. May I live in the joy and freedom of your victory over sin and death. Amen
Be blessed.
Today: Divine Mercy Novena Day One.
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