Thursday, April 18, 2019

The Mystery of God's Redemptive Suffering (Good Friday);Homily Good Friday of the Holy Week (Good Friday Year ABC)


The Mystery of God's Redemptive Suffering (Good Friday)
Homily Good Friday of the Holy Week (Good Friday Year ABC)
·         Isa 52: 13–53:12;
·          Ps 31:2,6,12-13,15-16,17,25;
·         Heb 4:14-16;5:7-9;
·         John18:1–19:42

 Today is the second day of the Sacred Triduum, begun yesterday! Today’s liturgy rooted in scriptures, invites us to enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ's redemptive passion, death and resurrection.

 Mysteries and ironies, of course, surround every section of today’s liturgy- that only faith can fully explain. On a day like this one may legitimately ask: What makes today Good Friday when the Stations of the Cross has just been re-enacted? What is good about the symbolic red vestments priests and deacons, wear today, at the beginning of the liturgy? What is good about the altars left completely bare, without crosses, 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– and many more other questions that you may want to raise? 

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. 

That Good Friday is redemptive and salvific is more revealing in the passages of today’s Scripture Readings, beginning with Isaiah’s 4th Song of the suffering servant of God (Isa 52:13–53:12)-- Ebed YHWH. Written several hundreds of years before the birth Christ to console, comfort and give hope to those exiled in Babylon. Isaiah says,

“He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed… he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses”( Isa 53:4-12).
Christians relate this image of the Ebed YHWH to Christ crucified on Good Friday! The writer of the 2nd reading, the Letter to the Hebrews must have been a Christian, familiar not only with the passages from Isaiah, but also was familiar with the Christ’s suffering, but whose aim was to reveals the salvific nature Good Friday when it says, “In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered, and when he was made perfect, he became source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

Today’s Friday is ironically good because without it there would have been no resurrection, and no salvation. This irony, this mystery is also evident throughout that long passion narrative read from the gospel of John (John 18:1–19:42). Throughout the Johannine Passion, Jesus “yet” is control.  He gives Judas Iscariot instruction to do quickly what he is about to do (John 18:2). In the garden of the Kidron Valley, Jesus asks whom they were looking for. As soon as he declared himself- the “I AM”, they all felt helplessly to the ground.  Here lies the Good Friday?

In all, the Jesus of John is the Son of Man that came down from heaven to whom the Father has turned over judgment.  When he is interrogated by the high priests, Jesus turns back the interrogation: “Why do you question me?” He makes it clear to Pilate that he has no authority over him. In this ironic trials of Jesus, Pilates is nervous and shuttles back and forth between the Jews outside the Praetorium while ironically Jesus remains in the Praetorium.  The shuttling and indifferent Pilates finds no guilt in the innocent and steady Jesus, yet he had him scourged innocently. Yet Pilate lacks the courage to speak the truth. In John, only Christ is the truth, the life and the way!

In that passion read, Jesus dies kingly and triumphantly in John “bowing his head he handed over his spirit.”  On top of the cross, his title- “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews,” is universally written in three languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin). It is a universal Good Friday! A Friday that saves the world? Even though his garments are divided as foretold, his priestly tunic, the alb is intact, a priest forever! As long foretold, that on being lifted up he would draw many to himself(John 12:32), on the foot of the cross, came the fulfilment (tetelestai): Mary his mother, the sister, wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene, the disciple whom he love,  Roman soldiers, Jews, Gentiles,  and secrete believers like Nichodemus, Joseph of Arimathea  were all there! Jesus is also given a kingly burial and laid in a garden!

This is the mysterious narrative that has really made Good Friday, good and redemptive. Today the victim has become the conqueror!  As Pope Francis, and his many predecessors have, repeatedly emphasized, it is a gospel of suffering endurance for all who have in the course of history been persecuted and abused by those who are politically, socially, religiously and economically powerful; those plagued by diseases, natural tragedies, man-made violent structures, abuse of guns, ISIS, BOKO Haram, religious extremists, poverty, ignorance, but who realize that God is with them, and that the power of the oppressors are temporary.

May we on this Good Friday (2016,……. 2019,…..), continue to contemplate the mystery of the redemptive suffering of Christ, remembering to bear our suffering patiently, as well as pray for our brothers and sisters, who are victims of all kinds of attacks and tragedies (Notre Dame Cathedral inflame, etc)! And may we together continue to build God’s kingdom through our lives of faithful witness to the Cross and so help bring our neighbors to Christ with whom we shall one day share eternal life in heaven!

Reflection Questions:
1.    In the light of Good Friday’s liturgy what are the areas of our sufferings, false attacks and persecutions, worthy of offering it to the Lord?
2.    Do we believe in the hiddenness of salvation in the Cross?
3.    How do we assist others to bear their daily crosses with hope and trust in the Redeemer’s Assistance?