Good Friday
April 7, 2023
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Amazement
We have just taken part in the proclamation of the Lord’s death. Let us worship him “who loved us more than we could ever ask or imagine.” Let us be amazed at the depth of his love for us, a love that knows no limits. And let us love him in return.
Moments from now, we will unveil the Cross. These words will ring out across this Cathedral Church: “Behold, the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the world. Come, let us adore!” Then, one by one, we will approach the Cross in adoration. We will adore the One who, for our sake, suffered, died, and was buried.
A Burden Too Heavy To Bear
Good Friday is that day when we must do away with every form of presumption. How easy it is for you and me to imagine that we are just average people, people with good points but also our faults, a few here and a few there, but in main, self-sufficient, needing from God only a little encouragement and help.
Yet, Jesus knows us, better than we know ourselves. The Son of God became one of us, assuming our humanity. Though sinless, he was tempted in every way that we are tempted. Though he was God’s eternal Son, he placed himself in total solidarity with us. Jesus understands our weaknesses from within – our physical infirmities, our emotional limitations, our proclivity to sin. He is the High Priest supremely able to sympathize with us in our weakness. From within our humanity, Jesus knows that the burden of our sins is too heavy for us to bear. As we read in Psalm 38, “my iniquities overwhelm me, a burden too heavy for me.”
Suffering Servant
The reading from Isaiah presents the figure of the Suffering Servant, a mysterious figure who would suffer for the sins of others. After describing the disfigurement this servant of God underwent, Isaiah says: “… it was our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured… upon him was laid the chastisement that makes us whole.”
Hearing those words and taking them to heart, do we not see only Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Innocent of sin, completely united in love with his heavenly Father, Jesus took upon himself our sins and the sins of all humanity, and not only our sins, but also the estrangement from God that sin produces in our hearts, and the discord that sin produces in human relationships. The physical torments Jesus endured were the outward sign of the inner torment that he experienced as took on himself the heavy yoke of our sins. How deeply his sinless soul suffered as he experienced our sinful alienation from the God in whose image we have been created.
Some say that God demanded the death of his Son as if he were exacting vengeance, as if he were an angry god exacting the proverbial “pound of flesh” to be assuaged. But just the opposite is true. God is unchanging in his love for us, for God is love. In is passionate but unchanging love for us, God is grieved by our infidelities. For sin is not the mere breaking of a rule, but the breaking of our relationship with God. By sinning, we degrade our relationship with God, and we degrade ourselves, introducing into the world, age after age, untold suffering. God loves us too much not to take this state of affairs seriously. Indeed, so much did he love us that he sent his Son to take upon himself our sins, to reconcile us to himself and to one another. The burden we cannot bear, Jesus bore for us. The knot we cannot untie, Jesus untied for us. It was by dying for us that Jesus triumphed over sin and death. It was by laying down his life for us that Jesus revealed the glory of his Father’s love.
Laying Our Sins at the Feet of Jesus
In his account of the Last Supper, John the Evangelist comments that Jesus “loved his own” and that “he loved them to the end”, that is, he loved them to the point of giving up his life for them. In St. John’s account of the crucifixion, Jesus’ last words are: “It is finished.” In his death on the Cross, Jesus completed his mission. He loved us to the very end. Indeed, he loved us beyond the limits and confines of this world, as he rose from the dead and ascended to his Father where he still pleads for us.
That is why the Letter to the Hebrews urges that we “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” By dying and rising, Jesus has opened the way for us to find forgiveness. Let us then lay at the feet of the crucified Savior all our sins, including those grave betrayals of trust on the part of church representatives that have harmed so many innocent victims. Only the pure, innocent, and infinite love of the Savior can atone for sins such as this.
Suffering with Jesus
And let do more. Let us be willing to suffering with Jesus. St. Paul speaks of “filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” Christ’s death on the Cross remains the all-sufficient source of forgiveness and mercy, yet his sufferings are not complete until we consent to share in them, until every member of the Body of Christ participates in his redemptive love. Surely, this means repenting of our own sins, confessing them, and indeed, bearing the evil consequences that sin brings about in our lives.
But it means more than that. The crucified Savior invites us to bear one another’s burdens, to be willing to suffer, not only for our own sins, but for the sins of others, including those who have gone before us, including those sins in which we were not involved. Just as Jesus suffered for us, the innocent for the guilty, so too, he invites us who are not innocent, to atone both for our sins and the sins of others. This is part of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ. Taking on this burden does not lead to blind alleys of guilt or anger. Partaking in the redemptive sufferings of Christ is our path to peace and glory. For only then can we say that Jesus’ self-giving love has taken root in us.
Come, Let Us Adore
Let us indeed approach “the throne of mercy” as the Letter to the Hebrews urges, not a throne that is gilt or bejeweled but the throne that is the Cross. It is from the Cross that Jesus reigns as Victor over sin and death. It is from the Cross that his blood and water flows upon us, even now, in the sacramental life of the Church, the font of cleansing and sacrificial love. Let us be amazed. Let us be grateful. Come, let us worship!