Good Friday
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
March 29, 2024
Is Love Serious?
Nothing is quite so delightful as falling in love. When love sweeps us off our feet, everything else pales in comparison. Our worries and complaints seem insignificant. The very thought of the one we love brings us joy.
But real love cannot remain a lighthearted emotion. Love is real only when we take seriously the one we love, seeking to know what is important to our beloved, seeking to appreciate that person’s lived experience. Genuine love doesn’t put the other on a pedestal. True love is realistic. We love the other for who he or she is, even as we want those we love to be the best version of themselves. And if love is real, it must be mutual, a mutual gift of self that is given in good times and bad, in sickness and health . . . .
Genuine love also has a flip side, and it’s this: We dislike, even hate, anything that could harm the person we love, whether it’s physical danger or illness, or behaviors that undermine the well-being of our beloved. We are distressed, even angry when those we care about harm themselves by reckless or immoral behaviors, self-inflicted wounds that rob them of dignity and joy. And we are just as angry when anyone sins against the ones we love. Love may seem lighthearted but in fact, love is serious.
Does God Take Us Seriously?
On this Good Friday we ask: Does God take us seriously? We often say that God loves us, indeed, that God loves us unconditionally. If God’s love for us is anything like human love (only much better), that can only mean that God takes us seriously . . . The Psalmist confirms this when he exults: “When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you set in place – What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:4-6).
That verse, beautiful as it is, only hints at how deeply God love us, and thus how seriously he regards our humanity, our experience, our destiny. So serious in fact, that God sent his Son to become one of us, to be incarnate of the Virgin Mary, to assume our humanity. ‘He worked with human hands. Thought with a human mind. Acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he was truly made one of us, like us in all things but sin’ (Cf. Vat. II: GS, 22).
As Jesus came of age and began his mission, he experienced the joy of friendship with his disciples as also with those who accompanied them. He knew joy and sorrow. He grew tired, hungry and thirsty, and at times, was exasperated. He knew what it was to be praised, misunderstood, and reviled. Along the way, he encountered every form of human suffering. For those in need, he was the Good Samaritan par excellence. Somewhere in the Gospel it is said that Jesus understood human nature. Indeed, he understood us better than we understand ourselves. He also loved us more than we love ourselves.
Jesus’ love for us perfectly reflects the love he shares eternally with the Father a love so deep and real that its bond is the Holy Spirit. In revealing the Father’s love for us, Jesus left to room for flattery. He came into the world not merely to walk a mile or two in our sandals, not merely to affirm us, not merely to tell us that we’re good enough as we are. True love rules out flattery, complacency, and presumption.
The love Jesus has for us encompasses everything that is good about us. Yes, the Lord wants us to become the best version of ourselves, the persons that God, in his love, meant us to be from all eternity. But God’s love for us, not unlike authentic human love, has a flip side. So much does Jesus love us that he hates sin – sin that is not the mere breaking of an arbitrary rule but sin that undermines and destroys our capacity to fall in love with God and to love one another as God has first loved us. Jesus condemns those who lead others into sin, those who scandalous behavior undermines the faith of others. Indeed, Jesus contended with the devil, the personification of sin . . . in the desert, in the garden, on the Cross . . . So much does he love us, he died for our sins.
A Love Serious, Beautiful, and Victorious
In Isaiah we encountered Jesus, the Suffering Servant who gave his life as an offering for sin. In Hebrews, we encountered Jesus the great high priest whose self-offering penetrated the heavens where he intercedes for us. In John, we walked the way of the Cross and stood beneath it with Mary and the Beloved Disciple, there to be encompassed by love itself.
As on this Good Friday we bend low to worship the Cross of our salvation, let our love for the Crucified Savior rule out mere lip service, complacency, and presumption on our part. In our love for the Christ, may we at last learn to hate sin in all its forms, rejecting sin and Satan, the father of lies so as to embrace the One who love us more than we ask or imagine.
For, “[w]e do not come to the Cross to mourn a vanquished one . . . We come to the Cross to celebrate the victory over sin, death, and the devil, for which the Son of God has not hesitated to shed his blood. We weep at the foot of the Cross because it tells us once more what our salvation has cost our Savior. But we weep, while singing with the Psalmist, ‘Those who sow in tears will reap rejoicing.’ The harvest will be our reconciliation with the Father.” (Louis Bouyer, The Pascal Mystery, p. 189)