Good Friday Reflections 2013

Portuguese artist anonymous- Ecce homo, século XV. Museu da Rainha D. Leonor


Scripture Readings for Good Friday Mass
 The Passion of The Lord are here

What Would I Have Done ?

The ancient Hebrews were so tied by tradition

they couldn’t recognize the Messiah

when he was right there in front of them, 

and he was crucified.

The disciples, who walked and worked with Christ,  

were very afraid of him;
they hoped, but they also doubted,
and they ran that night,
and he was crucified.

The common people mobbed him,
showed him their sicknesses and sores,
and they threw down an aisle of palms for him and sang to him,
and he was crucified.

His family was embarrassed, and stood outside,
and wished he’d come home,
and he was crucified. 

Would we crucify Jesus today?
It’s not a rhetorical question for the mind to play with. 

I believe,
We are each born with a body, a mind, a soul, and a handful of nails.

I believe,
When a man dies, no one has ever found any nails left,
clutched in his hands
or stuffed in his pockets.

From God is No Fool, Lois A. Cheney, Abingdon Press, 1969, pp. 40-41
 

 

 Image source

My post from Good Friday 2012 is here.

Peter Denies Jesus post here.

Click here for Seven Last Words of Christ  

Christ of St John Of The Cross Salvador Dali

 Source

Thinking Faith, The Online Journal of The British Jesuits, have reflections 
 by scripture scholar Nicholas King SJ on the Stations of the Cross.

Click here to read.

Die And Be Raised

Walter Breuggemann on Lent, Good Friday, Easter and the "shutdown" of the way it used to be.

A challenge !

Click here to watch Brueggemann's video from Work Of The People.

 

Image source

This day of desolation 

and anguish

immense suffering

a day of darkness and evil

of human cowardice

sin and shame

of sorrow

of ignorance

but You loved through it all Jesus,

to show us the way to live and die

 

There is the perennial question of why God's love is not more evident in my own life and the world ?
 

There is the question of where and what would we be in this world if it all ended in this utterly bleak and empty darkness of Good Friday? 

But the "good news" is that it never totally ends with these questions and the emptiness never totally overcomes because that would be to let evil win out.
  
What I am confronted with on Good Friday, more than any of the malice and hatred of this day, is that God loves us all without condition or limit :-  even in the face of evil, crushing pain, suffering, failure, and the fear of annihilation, the sheer beauty of Christ's gratuitous love can and does transform lives.

I know too that Christ rose from the dead. 
I can't explain it but that's why it is called the Paschal Mystery !  

Maybe as I'm getting older I find I am more attuned just to surrender to this mystery of faith and grace. 

 James Tissot's Painting The View Christ Saw from The Cross

These two extracts below are from Fr. Richard Rohr's daily posts 
from The Centre for Action and Contemplation.

 "Today the primary human problem, the core issue that defeats human history, is both revealed and resolved. It is indeed a "good" Friday. 

The central issue at work is the human inclination to kill others, in any multitude of ways, instead of dying ourselves—to our own illusions, pretenses, narcissism, and self-defeating behaviors. 

Good Friday by Franciscan Brother Mickey Mc Grath

 Jesus dies "for us" not in the sense of "in place of" but actually "in solidarity with" us, to show us how! The first is merely a metaphysical transaction of sorts, the second is a transformation of soul and history and people.

Whenever you see an image of the Crucified Jesus, know that it is the clear and central message unveiled. It reveals what humanity is doing to itself and to one another. It is you and every person and Jesus all at the same time. 

 Don't lessen its meaning by making it merely into a mechanical transaction whereby Jesus pays some "price" to God or the devil. 

The only price paid is to the human soul—so it can see what it has done, who it is, and what it still can be."

Written during hermitage, Lent 2010

"Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of all who fall asleep.  

 1 Corinthians 15:20. St. Paul seldom leaves the message at the level of “believe this fact about Jesus.” He always moves it to “this is what it says about you!” or “this is what it says about history!”

Until we are pulled into the equation, we find it hard to invest ourselves in a distant religious belief. 
Paul normally speaks of “Christ”—which includes all of creation—for he never knew Jesus “in the flesh” but only as the eternal Body of Christ.

Christ Crucified is all of the hidden, private, tragic pain of history made public and given over to God.  

Christ Resurrected is all suffering received, loved, and transformed by an All-Caring God. How else could we have any kind of cosmic hope?

 How else would we not die of sadness for what humanity has done to itself and to one another?

The cross is the standing statement of what we do to one another and to ourselves. 

The resurrection is the standing statement of what God does to us in return."

The Courage of Jesus

Author Mike Frost

Click here to see the video from Work Of The People