At the Foot of the Cross (Good Friday, 2021)

-

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42


The die is cast! Darkness everywhere! Jesus has carried His cross to the place of the skull where He would be crucified! God seems to have kept mute! Men and women like you and me seem to have dispersed and deserted Him. We can only see Him from afar, hanging on the cross in anguish and excruciating pains. We can see and hear people make mockery of Him; spit at Him; and denounce Him as a common criminal. There are some whispers and shouts of derision from the crowd, “IMPOSTOR, IT SERVES YOU RIGHT TO DIE THIS WAY! YOU CALL GOD YOUR FATHER, LET US SEE WHETHER HE WILL SAVE YOU”. Today, we see LOVE being clearly victorious over HATRED! By dying, Jesus has destroyed our death.

    

Obviously, Christ had the power to avoid death. He had the absolute power to vanquish His tormentors. However, He willingly chose to die in a disgraceful manner. Why? Because He knew that it is only through death that He would be able to conquer and destroy our death. That is why He endured the passion and the pain of the cross. Isaiah says that: “…He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5).


He commended His spirit to the One who sent Him: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk. 23:46b). The letter to the Hebrews says that “He offered up prayers and supplication to God who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard for His godly fear” (Heb. 5:7). Was he actually heard? Was He actually saved by God? At this point, we pause and reflect!


The Letter to the Hebrews further says that “He suffered, He obeyed, and having been made perfect He became the eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb 5:9). 


Christ obeyed the Father and suffered unto death. He can only save us if we obey Him and heed His instructions. One of His instructions for us is: “ANYONE who wants to COME AFTER ME must DENY himself, take up his CROSS and FOLLOW him; for whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for his sake will save it” (Lk. 9:23-24). Can we take a long look at the Cross and pledge to take it up daily and follow Jesus? 


Today, the image of the Cross stands very tall for us to see. Today, the Cross suffuses our worship. Today, we are given the Cross to kiss, to love and identify with it. The Cross has spoken more eloquently than words. Our own crosses may be too numerous to count. But in union with Christ, let us continue to carry them patiently and joyfully. Not forgetting that after the GOOD FRIDAY, there will be an EASTER SUNDAY! All in all, there's something GOOD about this FRIDAY.   


PRAYER

Lord Jesus, you were crucified for our sake. Grant us the grace to carry our own crosses for Your sake and for our salvation, Amen!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts versus the Giver (Monday, Week 20, Year II)

-
Image
A gift, by the virtue of what it is, is given. In other words, there must be a giver. Gift can come or be in the form of a good friendship or relationship, material thing, good job, personal talent, and so on. Every cherished gift is the delight of our eyes, the pride of our power and the desire of our souls. The gifts that we possess should then remind us of the giver. It smacks of arrogance and ingratitude when gifts are used without acknowledging or making reference to the giver. For the Jews, the Temple or Sanctuary was the delight of their eyes, the pride of their power and the desire of their souls. It was a precious gift which they jealously guarded. However, they adorned the Sanctuary but did not truly adore the One for whom the Sanctuary exists. They were too attached to the “gift” (sanctuary) but were completely detached from the Giver of the gift – from Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesied to them that this sanctuary which was their delight will be profaned and taken away from them. M
Read more

Persecution and Triumph, the Two Realities of Christian life (Saturday, Week 33, Year 2, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

-
Image
The book of Revelation is full of symbols and imageries that need to be carefully interpreted for us to understand the message they communicate. In today’s first reading (cf. Rev. 11:4-12), John was told about two olive trees and two lamp stands serving as witnesses to the Holy One. Who or what do these two sets of witnesses (olive trees and lamp stand) stand for? When we read further in order to understand what happened to these two witnesses, it may be a bit clear to us that the “two witnesses” may be pointing to Moses and Elijah, judging from what they did on earth and what they stand for. Moses stands for the Law; and Elijah stands for the Prophet. Anyone who bears witness as Moses bore witness to the Law of God must be persecuted by the beast as the first reading (from the Book of Revelation) recounted. Anyone who bears witness to the messages of truth as Elijah and other prophets did must be persecuted just as the prophets were persecuted. Persecution is a fate that awaits every
Read more

Enkindle the Embers of Unity, Quench the Fire of Disunity (Wednesday, Week 22, Year A)

-
Image
For some time now, we have heard Paul talk about the spiritual and the unspiritual: what it means to live and operate on the level of the Spirit (the spiritual) and on the level of the flesh (the unspiritual). Paul was very emphatic about this topic possibly because he was addressing a group of people who were too intellectual and academic in their approach to the things of God and all of that. Remember that the Corinthians were Greek; and the ancient Greeks were known to be too particular and more interested in intellectualism, sophistry, philosophy and human wisdom. And we must not forget that Paul has been very suspicious of over-reliance on worldly/human wisdom in understanding and appreciating the things of the Spirit. To rely more on human/worldly wisdom is a sign that one may be operating on the level of the flesh; and to operate on the level of the flesh breeds a whole lot of vices such as division or sectionalism, hedonism, and so on. In today’s section of that letter to the C
Read more