GOOD FRIDAY-2014

One night in 1935, Fiorello  La Guardia, mayor of New York City, showed up at a night court in the poorest ward of the city. He dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench. One case involved an elderly woman who was caught stealing bread to feed her grandchildren.  La Guardia said, "I've got to punish you. Ten dollars or ten days in jail." As he spoke, he threw $10 into his hat.  He then fined everyone in the courtroom 50 cents for living in a city "where an old woman had to steal bread so that her grandchildren should not starve." The hat was passed around, and the woman left the courtroom with her fine paid and an additional $47.50. 

In justice the Judge had to punish the woman for stealing. But she had no means to pay the fine. So he himself paid the fine after convicting her. God said to Adam and Eve: do not eat the fruit of the tree and if you do, you shall die. God had to punish them for their violation. If he did not, he would not be trusted with his words, his words would mean nothing, he would not be meting out justice.  But they were not in a position to repair the dishonor done to God by themselves. So, God had to come and do the repairing himself and take death upon himself and free the human beings from death.

Let’s revisit some of the points of the first reading Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Through his punishment we were made whole, by his wounds we are healed… he was stricken for people’s sins. Unresisting and silent, he humbly submitted. He makes himself an offering for sin. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him with grief; he will bear and take away their guilt. For he surrendered himself to death and was even counted among the wicked, bearing the sins of the multitude and interceding for sinners.  They put him in the graveyard of the oppressors.( Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were members of Sanhedrin-part of the oppressors). For the anguish he suffered, he will see the light and obtain perfect knowledge. My just servant will justify the multitude;(Paul says we are justified by his resurrection). Everything that Jesus went through the holy week were only the fulfillment of what was prophesied 700 years before him. So, it was no accident.

If sin was the source of suffering, and if Jesus took our suffering upon himself in order to save us from sin, then why do we still suffer? This is an important question, and it has an important answer. Jesus doesn't save us from suffering; he saves us through suffering. Jesus teaches us, by his example, how to find meaning and purpose in our sufferings: by using them as a spring board for trusting in God.

As St Ignatius of Loyola puts it, "There is no wood more useful for kindling and feeding the fire of divine love than the wood of the cross."

Christ's cross shows his limitless trust in his Father's will, which reveals his limitless and unconditional love for each one of us. This is why we kiss the cross today.

Our crosses are intersections of wills.  When our natural preferences contradict what God asks or permits, we are faced with a personal cross.

Every cross is a chance to exercise our trust in God and thereby to rebuild the relationship that sin has ruptured. This is why God sends and permits crosses in our lives. 

One mistake that we all tend to make in our Christian journey is the mistake of going it alone. Jesus allowed Simon the Cyrenian to share the burden of his cross. Sharing the burden of the cross helped Simeon to know Jesus intimately.  Later he became a great disciple of Jesus. That is why his name is clearly mentioned in the Bible, because he was a very well known early Christian. Let’s like Simon follow Jesus on his way of the Cross.

St Francis of Assisi said, "I exhort you brethren, have continually before your mind the blessed passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It will strengthen you, and encourage you to suffer more generously for the sake of his Love."