Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord
March 29th 2024 . (For you at Home).
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
Psalm: Ps 30:2. 6. 12-13. 15-17. 25. "Father, I put my life in your hands"
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Gospel Acclamation: Philippians 2:8-9
Passion: John 18:1 - 19:42
Homily
Solemn Intercessions
Spiritual Veneration of the Cross
Communion
Departure in Silence
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Image ID: Road to Calvary, through golden Palms. Gold Coast. 2024
Please listen to my audio recordings of the readings, prayers, and reflections for Good Friday Passion - by
clicking this link here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/good-friday-passion-of-the-lord-3pm-service-abc-2024/s-ogFTH4pMry7
THE LORD'S PASSION - Good Friday Message.
One could be forgiven for becoming really cynical about today's world and about human nature. Those who go on rampages of vandalism, violence and fear, robbing and frightening vulnerable people in their homes. The endless stories on the news of people taking advantage of others for their own pragmatic gain, not treating others as if they were brothers and sisters, and all the wars and suffering and poverty and injustice, the logic of this world would say the world is going to the dogs.
And certainly, there's no doubt that there are very serious social, economic, ethical and human dignity issues facing our world and our society. We are right to be extremely concerned. In fact, our Lord came to save the world because the world was, and still is, in dire need of saving.
The truth is we cannot fix it all by ourselves. We can't lift ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We need our Lord to save us from ourselves.
The challenge though, is to realistically and pragmatically face these issues and so many real world obstacles, but with profound Christian hope, commitment to respecting our Lord's blessed gospel, which saves us and gives us life, which renews us. Christ, of course, lived so perfectly his gospel in his body and his life, and so profoundly he revealed in his sufferings and death this love to save us all, to such immense faithfulness and fruitfulness for the entire world. In Christian hope, even in the face of the worst that can happen in this world, or in the course of our life's journey, Jesus' way of life and of love is a welcome beacon of hope and a pathway through the darkness.
Today, particularly this afternoon, our Lord shows us that the only real answer is one that utterly respects the profound humanity of all people, and hoping and deciding to act in ways that speak of the kind of world Jesus lived and died to usher in.
To the eyes of faith, and to generations who have followed Christ after that first Good Friday of the crucifixion, for over 2,000 years and including us today, this is Good Friday, a very, very Good Friday, because Christ shows us that God never gives up on us, never turns away from the reality of our human life and our suffering. God, revealed so beautifully in Jesus, will not spare himself of anything, even suffering and death, to keep faith with us, to keep solidarity with us.
And so this is a very Good Friday, because ultimately God has the last word on everything. And God's last word on everything is a word of hope, a word of dignity and justice, a word of true and unreserved love. Despite the cynical but very real things that get thrown up at us as we walk through life currently, our God is with us, and not just from a distance, but right there with us, suffering along with us.
Today is not so much about see how awful humans have been to God throughout history, but rather see how faithful, how loving, how merciful, how compassionate our Lord has always been to his beloved people, and always will be. We fall at our Lord's feet in worship and amazement and thanksgiving. Today we praise Jesus for his goodness and faithfulness to us, which excels all we ever knew.
God has given us more than we could possibly have hoped for or imagined. Every year without fail, meditating on this moving account of the passion of our Lord Jesus, we're inspired and renewed. We're filled with a sense of awe.
It cuts straight to the heart and lays bare our deepest hopes and our greatest fears. The power of Christ's death on the cross is humbling. Today we silently contemplate how much God loves us, how much he gave up for us, for our sake.
There can be no greater love than this. Jesus' betrayal and arrest the previous evening, his unjust trial in which he was really found to be innocent, even in the flawed civil Roman courts, but nevertheless unjustly sentenced to a criminal's death in place of a real criminal, how ironic, because that's what Jesus has done for everyone who has ever sinned, taken our place, in love, to save us. In any case, because of the insistence of the hysterical crowd, they trade our Lord in for a common criminal, a murderer.
Only the eyes of faith could describe this Friday as Good Friday, but it truly is, because nothing can destroy God's faithfulness to his beloved people, nothing can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing can defeat the power of God's love. Even when we can't imagine that some actions could ever be forgiven, or that there could be any hope beyond many of life's tragedies….. it is Jesus himself who keeps faith with us. He pleads to the Father that we will embrace the forgiveness and compassion that is truly offered to us and to all. God keeps telling us that we really are truly and unconditionally loved, no matter what may happen.
We know that even when everything bad was thrown at Jesus, he continued to respond in love, not hate, in peace, not violence, in mercy, not revenge, and Jesus' faithfulness to the Father and to his people is so inspiring.
God crucified all that was death-dealing in life on the cross, robbing it of its final power.
We know throughout history, and even to this day, groups can turn very nasty, violent, hateful.
They can be stirred up by mob mentalities. They can allow fear and bigotry to be given a voice. And once it's been given a voice, voices become actions and great evil can occur.
How many people at Jesus' trial really wanted him executed? And how many just went along with the emotion of the crowd, caught up in the palpable wave of hatred, jealousy and excitement, possibly even fear, that had erupted? The cross of Christ stands as a reminder that although we are members of various communities and groups, first and foremost, each one of us is standing before the cross of Christ, and is asked to make our own personal yes to Jesus, and our own personal no to peer pressure and unthinking trends, shifting values, temporary values, that can assail us from every direction in this modern world. Values that are not consistent with Christ's life, and which deny the dignity and justice that every single child of God deserves, that is, every person. In a short while, we will come before the wood of the cross, where Christ reveals his unconditional love for us, and he asks us to say yes to the life he gives us.
In a short while, in this same liturgy today, we will approach the wood of the cross - and we will bow to it, or genuflect. We will make a profound personal veneration before the wood of Christ's cross. This is our own individual way of saying yes to the values of Jesus, who withstood the enormous pressures of huge numbers of people, to be faithful to the Father's vision, for a world of mercy and justice, and above all, love, which doesn't stop to count the cost, and which gives without hope of return.
Christ's cross is to be found reflected in all who suffer, those who mourn, those who have been rejected, those who are experiencing injustice. The cross is patterned in the hearts of all who endure illness or pain. Christ's cross is a silent yes to all who long to be forgiven for past mistakes and sins, but don't dare believe that they can be freed from the guilt and shame.
The cross is also found in the experiences of people who are persecuted, or those who are experiencing fear, violence, injustice, or unrest anywhere in the world, whether it be in some faraway country racked with dictatorship, or in the house next door to us, or in our own home. This is a good Friday, and the cross is revealed as the wisdom and power of God, and it reveals Christ, who is the embodiment of truth. Most of all, it reveals God's constant and utter love.
A spiritual writer once said, and said it so beautifully, "one of the powerful things that Easter says to us today is this, you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there. You can nail truth to a cross, or wrap it up in winding sheets and shut it in a tomb, but it will rise again." (Quote from Clarence W. Hall)
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References:
Fr Paul Kelly
Image ID: Road to Calvary, through golden Palms. Gold Coast. 2024
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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
To listen to the weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks
Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.
May God bless and keep you.
KER 2024
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