April 10 Good Friday Homily
Today is a day of tragedy and triumph, surrender and victory. We often do not connect these two realities, but today they are one and the same. We live in a world where evil seems to prevail over good, division seems to prevail over unity and hatred seems to prevail over love. All of that changes today through the death of Jesus on the cross.
The tragedy of Good Friday is that an innocent man has been given a death sentence because of our sins. Jesus is guilty of only one crime: He loves us. He came to announce the Kingdom and he showed us many times in the Gospel how the coming of the kingdom will offer us peace and joy beyond measure if we forgive one another and do the will of the Father. We looked at our sins and weaknesses and then we looked at Jesus. our response was simple: Crucify Him! Nothing is more tragic than unrequited love and that is what Jesus suffers today.
While the prophet Isaiah foretold that we would reject his love, Jesus still surrendered all of it to the Father for us so that even though we would reject it, we might come to embrace it through his sacrifice. Love always has hope. Love always forgives. Love always transforms.
The perfect sacrifice of the Son of God shows its true power today. The power of sin and death is destroyed by the wood of the cross. The despair caused by injustice and division is healed by the death of the Son of God, who hangs on the cross between heaven and earth, uniting once again by this sacrifice God and the human race. The generosity of the Son of God who surrenders himself into our hands overcomes the selfish desires we have to hold on to everything, whatever the cost.
We look to Jesus bruised, beaten and bloody. It is difficult for us to face this ugliness. He is alomst unrecognizable carrying the burden of our sins. Many people would prefer to ignore his death and just proceed to his resurrection, but we cannot have one without the other. We need to accept the responsibility for what we have done. We come and venerate his cross. We kiss the body of our crucified God and thank him for his love and mercy. We ask him never to abandon us.
We know that in the midst of our sufering and pain, our doubts and fears that he is still with us. Jesus encourages us from the cross to embrace our suffering and not to run from our fears. He reminds us to pray daily for what we need to serve him in faith. Most of all, he encourages us to love as he loves, without considering the price.
Like the repentant thief, we know that Jesus is innocent. We know that we are sinners. We ask only one thing from him today: Jesus remember me, when you come into your Kingdom. Remember me when I feel lost and alone. Remember me when I am overwhelmed and tempted to despair. Remember me when I am tempted to forget you. Then, after these words leave our lips, we hope with all our hearts that Jesus will hear our voice and say: Today you will be with me in paradise!
