Good Friday:
Passion and Death of Our Lord (B) [Jn 18:1-19:42]
29.03.2024
The
Passion and Glorious Death of Jesus
1. Theme in brief:
Carrying our crosses out of love
2. Focus Statement
Like Jesus, we too are called to complete
our life’s mission by carrying our daily crosses willingly and in a composed
manner out of love for God and humans, and in obedience to God’s will.
3. Explanation of the text
Some of the unique and salient features found only in John’s Passion Narrative prescribed for today’s liturgy are the following:
(1) The cross is the culmination of and the greatest price Jesus pays for his saving deeds, such as compassion towards the sick, the hungry, the sinners and the outcasts. It is the climax of his ‘hour’ (that is, God’s appointed time) by which he glorifies the Father (12: 23).
(2) Jesus faces his suffering and death willingly (voluntarily) and in a composed manner. He lays down his life of his own accord out of love for humans (18:5-8, 11, 30), and also in total obedience to the mission entrusted to him by his Father. In the Garden of Kidron Valley, when the soldiers and the temple police come to arrest him, he voluntarily submits himself into the hands of his enemies by openly revealing his identity twice as Jesus of Nazareth. He says: if they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, they should allow his disciples to go free (18.4-8). He tells Peter that he must drink the ‘cup’ of suffering that the Father has designed for him (18:11). At the end, when his ‘hour’ of death comes, he willingly gives up his spirit as an act of voluntary and total self-surrender (19.30).
(3) Jesus walks the way of the cross up to Golgotha by carrying his cross “by himself” (all alone) without anybody’s help (such as Simon of Cyrene’s, as the Synoptic Gospels tell us, 19:17).
(4) From the cross Jesus cries out: “I am thirsty” (19:28). Taking into consideration for John’s liking for double meaning, Jesus is thirsty not only physically, but also for the love of sinners like us, and for God’s love to be realized in us. He thirsts that the spirit of his selfless love, service and sacrifice may come on earth through his followers.
(5) By his agonizing death on the cross, Jesus demonstrates to the world that there cannot be greater love than this (15:13).
(6) As he is totally committed to his Father’s will, he remains faithful to it unto death, and by his death accomplishes the mission for which he is sent. That is why he says: “It is finished or accomplished and gives up his spirit (19:30).
(7) Jesus dies at the very hour when the priests of the Temple at
Jerusalem slaughter the lambs for Jewish Passover. Therefore, he is likened to the
sacrificial Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world by his death on the
cross. When his side is pierced with a lance, blood and water gush forth (19:31-37), symbolizing
the sacraments of Eucharist and baptism.
4. Application to life
Our reflections on Good Friday based on the special and unique features of John’s passion narrative, are focussed on three loving invitations given by Jesus from the cross:
(1) To imitate or imbibe his spirit of voluntary suffering and service:
Since John’s gospel insists that Jesus voluntarily embraced the cross, out of sheer love for humans, it is good to distinguish between the sufferings in our lives, which come without asking (like illness, natural calamities, death, etc.), and those which we voluntarily embrace in order to be faithful to the ministry of service to the needy and the suffering. The crucified and exalted Christ (as per John’s theology) invites us to embrace those crosses which come to us when we voluntarily undertake services motivated by his shining example. Those of us who are highly motivated and committed for the service of the poor, social justice, eradication of social evils, solidarity with the downtrodden and care of the outcasts and the rejected have to voluntarily embrace crosses of criticism, opposition, rejection, humiliation and intimidation. Are we willing to embrace these crosses willingly and help others to carry their crosses? Like Christ, who willingly ‘drank the cup’ of suffering the Father had given him, we need to suffer voluntarily (or take up our crosses willingly) out of love for those whom he ministered (18:11). Does this thought make us more sensitive to the sufferings of those people?
(2) To accept our crosses in a composed manner and a spirit of self-surrender:
We may be surprised to notice a contradiction in terms at the title written above: “the passion and glorious death of Jesus”. How can the cruel and agonizing death he faced be ‘glorious?’ Unlike the synoptic gospels, John’s gospel presents Jesus entering into his Passion as a composed and glorious Messiah. His gospel minimizes the cruelty of his passion to show that he was in total control of his situation when his ‘hour’ had come, and approached his suffering and death in a composed manner. Thus, his passion narrative invites us to carry our daily crosses or face our own sufferings in a composed manner like Christ so that we may share his glory.
What are the crosses we need to accept in a composed manner? They are not made of wood. As per John’s passion narrative, they could come in the form of opposition and destructive criticism we face when we do deeds of mercy towards the needy, suffering, sinners, the poor and the outcasts; of rejection and ridicule we face when we voluntarily serve the needy out of love; of opposition when we stand firmly for certain moral principles and are faithful to our life’s purpose or mission; and negative reaction we meet when we stand for justice and truth. When we accept these crosses we undertake voluntary suffering for a cause and to fulfil a mission as Jesus did.
Let
us think of other crosses too in our life: persons we find difficult
to live with; places that are dangerous and risky; and circumstances/
situations that cannot be changed in spite of hard efforts; situations that are
absurd, frustrating, confusing, uncertain and the unexplainable; our powerlessness
to change anything in spite of having all powers; and our loneliness in
sickness and old age or lack of support from our own people. Sometimes we have
to carry the cross of an incurable or lingering illness, a broken relationship
with family members/ friends/ neighbours, a breakdown in marriage, a
deep-rooted bad habit or addiction (personal or someone else’s in the family),
an enmity with neighbours, a jobless situation, a loss of job and a sudden
death in the family. Sometimes we may have to carry some of these crosses alone
without any help or support from others (even from our family or community
members) as Christ had to do. These crosses lead to questions that haunt our
minds now and then without an answer: “Why this
particular thing should have happened to me...What wrong have I done…? Where is
God….?”
Today, Christ reminds us about the price he paid to help us go through our own way of the cross and Golgathas so that the light of Easter may shine on us. He invites us to place all our smaller and bigger crosses at the foot of his cross and unite our suffering with his suffering and death. Though all of us know that suffering in any form is a part and parcel of human life, when it comes to us we find it difficult to accept it in a composed manner as Christ did. I still have vivid memories of sitting at the bedside of my sister for six days (that looked like one month) and helplessly watching her dying at such a young age due to the attack of deadly cancer. When I reached her bedside at the last moment (as I was working in a distant place), she saw me and wept bitterly unable to speak a word. Then she went into a coma which kept her hanging between life and death for six days. Though it was difficult to accept that loss at that time, it has taught me a lesson. That experience has made me more sensitive to other people's suffering than before, and to the depth of pain families go through when their near and dear ones die in terminal illnesses and tragic accidents. It has made me realize how vulnerable and limited we are, as human beings, and how dependent we are on God’s power. This realization should lead us to admit our powerlessness and surrender ourselves into God’s hands and say: “Do what you want with me.” When our faith-surrender leads to peace and serenity of mind we experience the glimpses of glory emerging from the cross as John’s gospel tells us. According to his gospel Jesus’ glorification takes place at his death itself.
(3) To repent or change our hearts:
Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus invites us to experience a healing touch for the ‘poison’ of sin with which we are infected. He says to Nicodemus “just as Moses lifted up the serpant in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (Jn 3:14). We are called today to fix our gaze in faith at Jesus who is “lifted up” – a technical word in Jn to refer to his crucifixion and glorification. Today, John’s passion narrative invites us to experience God’s infinite love flowing from the cross of Christ. Cross is the proof of the Father’s boundless love for sinners like you and me, and for the broken world. It is the ultimate sign of God’s absolute love and generosity for us.
In the light of John’s passion narrative, let us look up to the cross of Christ with eyes of faith and meditate on the price he paid to heal us from the poison of sin or all evil. God loved you, me and the whole world of sinners so much that he allowed his Son to die a criminal’s shameful death on the cross. He so loved us that he wanted to share with us his own life (called “eternal life” in Jn) by saving us through the cross of Christ (cf. 3:16-17). Was there no other way of saving us? Yes, there was. But we would not have got a shining example of somebody like us who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and has been tested in every respect as we are (Heb 4:15). The loving gaze of Christ hanging on the cross with his tortured and blood-spattered body should remind us of the price his absolute love and total obedience to the Father’s will has paid. He proves that there cannot be any greater love than this (15:13). We hear a voice crying from the cross: “I love you this much! What more could I have done for you?” If this not enough to melt our hearts to repent for our and our world’s sins, what else can!
5. Response to
God's Word
Do we
voluntarily embrace those crosses which come to us when we voluntarily undertake
services motivated by his shining example? Do we accept our crosses (especially those which come to us because of
our voluntary service) in a composed manner and with surrender to God’s will,
or grudgingly with a lot restlessness and complaints? What are our personal
crosses and crosses of the world we would like to place at the foot of Christ’s
cross and unite our suffering with his? Only when we
accept our sufferings in faith and surrender to God’s will, our cross has a
redemptive value. Today, during the most sorrowful liturgy of Good Friday, are
we going to kiss the cross with this intention or just to fulfil a ritual?
6. A prayer
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world. O Crucified Lord, we bow down before your Holy
Cross in an act of thanksgiving for such a great price your absolute love has
paid in order to save us. Today we bring all our personal crosses and the
crosses of the suffering humanity in the world and place them at the foot of
your holy cross. Give us the grace and strength to accept them lovingly and in
a composed manner. We unite them with your suffering and death as an act of
total surrender to your holy will. Remain
with us, and be our support and strength when our crosses become too heavy for
us. Amen.
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