Homily - 29 March 2024 - Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Dear brothers and sisters,

We would rather not remain at the foot of the Cross, gazing up at the tortured body of the Son of God. No, we would prefer to bypass over the sorrowful suffering of Good Friday – as well as the strange and silent stillness of Holy Saturday – and skip straight to the glorious triumph of Easter Sunday. However, in her wisdom, Mother Church knows it is good for us to pause, at least for a day, at the Cross.

It might seem strange to think of Jesus going through his Passion and Death doing so as a resolute and heroic warrior, but that is precisely how the Anglo-Saxons considered that pivotal moment in the history of the cosmos.

In what is one of the oldest works of Old English writing, the unknown author of The Dream of the Rood relates a vision of the Cross in which hears of the Crucifixion of our Lord from the perspective of that sacred wood. After being fixed to the earth, the rood, the rod, the cross, said:

…Then I saw the Lord of mankind
hasten with great courage, because he wanted to climb upon me.
There I did not dare, against the Lord's word,
to bend or break when I saw the earth's surface
tremble. I could have
felled all those enemies, but I stood fast.
The young hero stripped himself - he was God Almighty,
strong and stout-minded. He mounted the high gallows,
courageous in the sight of many, when he intended to save mankind.
I trembled when that man embraced me; yet I dared not bow

     to the ground,
fall to the surface of the earth, but I had to stand fast.
As a rood was I reared. I lifted the mighty King,
the Lord of the heavens; I did not dare to bend.

They drove me through with dark nails. On me those sores are seen,
open wounds of wickedness. I dared not harm any of them.
They mocked us, both together. I was entirely bedewed with blood
poured out from that man's side, after he sent forth his spirit.[1]

Notice the words the tree uses in reference to what Jesus did; none are passive verbs, but active: Jesus stripped himself, mounted, intended, embraced, and sent forth. These are the actions of one in full control of all that happens, just as Jesus is depicted by Saint John.

What makes these actions heroic and not foolish? His heroism is found in his intention, “because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked” (Isaiah 53:12). He was not forced or coerced onto the Cross against his will; no, like a valiant warrior he went freely and willingly to overcome sin and death, all because of his great love for us.

The tree concludes its understanding of the Lord’s Passion, saying:

I experienced on that hill
many cruel events, I saw the God of hosts
severely stretched out. Darkness had
covered with clouds the Ruler’s body,
the shining brightness. A shadow passed
dark under the heavens. All creation wept,
lamented the king’s fall. Christ was on the cross.[2]

Yes, Christ Jesus was indeed on that Cross and, dying upon it, he conquered. 

Detail, The Crucifixion, BL Egerton 1193, The Melisende Psalter, f.8r

As we adore the wood of that Cross and him who, by his death, vanquished the ancient enemy, let us mourn the death of our Hero. Let us remain steadfast at the foot of the Cross. Let us weep with all creation, for truly “it is the heroism of obedience and love not of pride and willfulness that is the most heroic and most moving.”[3] Amen.

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[1] Eleanor Parker, trans. In “Wuldres treow,” A Clerk of Oxford, 7 April 2012, https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2012/04/wuldres-treow.html.

[2] Ibid.

[3] J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son,” Essays and Studies 6 (1953), ___.

Homily for Good Friday - On Loving the Love of Jesus

 

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Today, dear brothers and sisters, let us reflect briefly on Peter’s triple denial of Jesus. He first denied him to the maid, who was the gatekeeper. Then he twice denied him to the group keeping warm by the fire, when they asked if he was one of Jesus’ disciples (cf. John 18:17, 25). To both, Peter said, “I am not” (John 18:17, 25).

With these three words, Peter effectively said, “He is not my teacher. I have not learned from him. I have not followed him these past three years. I have not witnessed his miracles. I have not experienced his love. He is not my friend.”

How often have you and I effectively said the same?  

Duccio, Peter's Denial of Christ

What must Peter have felt as he spoke those words? The first time he surely said them hastily and almost under his breath, simply wanting not to be noticed, perhaps not quite even realizing what he said. The second time he must surely have known what he said, hesitatingly and with much anguish.

Earlier in the evening, he insisted, “Master, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37). Not long afterwards he demonstrated his readiness and his love for Jesus – even if misguidedly - when he cut off Malchus’ ear (cf. John 18:10).

Peter’s love for Jesus brought him inside the courtyard of the high priest, presumably as far as he would be let in since he was not known there as was John. Peter had come so close to Jesus and yet remained so far from him, not simply physically but interiorly, as well.

“I am not,” he said. Is not Peter’s denial of Jesus in one sense worse than Judas’ betrayal? Judas did not deny knowing Jesus; rather, he failed to see the truth of Jesus’ identity. Peter, on the other hand, denied knowing Jesus, though he recognized Jesus’ identity as “the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Judas, then, betrayed him whom he did not truly know; Peter betrayed him whom he truly knew.

Finally, Peter denies even being with Jesus in the garden. Peter’s love gave way to fear and in that moment the cock crowed. Saint Luke gives us a detail of this third denial Saint John does not: “Just as he was saying this the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord… He went out and began to weep bitterly” (Luke 22:60-62).

In that one look into the eyes of Jesus, Peter remembered every moment of his friendship with Jesus over the last three years. In that one look into the eyes of Jesus, Peter remembered everything he had said to Jesus and Jesus to him.

But all of these words, all of these events were, in Jesus’ eyes, nothing other than a story of love, and for the first time Peter understood, even saw, how much Jesus loved him, how great a friend he was. The words of his denial – “I do not know the man” – were reflected in the Master’s eyes, so full of love and suffering, and fell back into Peter’s heart like salt on a wound. He had never truly loved the love of Jesus, and he measured within his own heart all of the solitude, all of the abandonment of his only Friend and Father. No, it was not the Jews, it was not the Romans who wounded Jesus that night, but him, Peter! The abandonment of friends is a wound more painful than the hostility of enemies.[1]

How often have you and I denied any knowledge through our thoughts and actions? How often have we wounded and abandoned him?

Dear brothers and sisters, on this day, made good by the love of God in Christ Jesus, let us not be ashamed to let tears fill our eyes. Let us look upon the Crucified Lord who was pierced for us (cf. Zechariah 12:10; John 19:37). Let us look upon his Face bent down to look upon us, that we might see the very Face of love. Let us endeavor all the more to give ourselves entirely to him, that with Peter, we might come to truly love the love of Jesus. Amen.

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[1] Mauro-Giuseppi Lepori, Simon, Called Peter: In the Company of a Man in Search of God.  Trans. Matthew Sherry (San Francisco, California: Ignatius Press, 2010), 105.

Homily - Good Friday of the Lord's Passion - 2 April 2021

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Many centuries ago, in one of his homilies for Christmas, Pope Saint Gregory the Great admonished his hearers, saying, “Christian recognize your dignity…”[1] How many Christians do not now know their dignity?

It is no secret that there are a great many people today – men, women, and children - who live without hope, who do not sense their own worth, who think they are not valued by anyone and so they have little love for themselves. They have been deeply wounded by abandonment by betrayal, by use and abuse, by greed and poverty, by hunger and thirst, and by sickness and isolation. Having forgotten what it is to be truly loved, they live without hope and often find themselves in a state of despair; they have forgotten their own dignity.

On this Friday which we call Good, we have a wondrous and inexhaustible reminder of our dignity as Christians. Today we remember that “it was in Christ that the unthinkable became a reality. In Christ, God showed that man was worth suffering for.”[2] Why does one willingly suffer for another if not because of love? Do not parents willingly suffer for their children and friends willingly suffer for each other? Do we not know that we are loved, at least in part, by how much someone is willing to suffer for us?

We do not like to think much about this central aspect of love; we prefer the more romantic notion. But, at its core, authentic and sincere love “seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.”[3]

Soon, brothers and sisters, we will gaze upon the wood of the Cross; we will see the unmistakable sign of Christ Jesus’ love for each one of us. We will see the proof of the pain he bore for us and of sufferings that he endured for us (cf. Isaiah 53:4). Standing, sitting, or kneeling before his Cross, how can we not see how much he loves us? How can we not recognize our dignity?

Ms. 64 (97.MG.21), fol. 86

To be loved by God who suffered and died for us while we were still sinners is to have a dignity so great that it cannot be taken away from us (cf. Romans 5:8 and 8:38). As we adore the Cross of our Savior, let us not leave it here; let us, rather, take it with us everywhere we go. Let us hold the Cross aloft so that all who see it will know what Christ suffered. Let us hold the Cross aloft so that all who see it will know that they have been redeemed. Let us hold the Cross aloft so that all who see it will recognize their dignity. Let us hold the Cross aloft so that all who see it will entrust themselves to the hands of his mercy. Let us hold the Cross aloft so that all who see it will know they are not forgotten but immensely and personally loved. Amen.

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[1] Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Sermon 22 in Nativitatem Domini, 3.

[2] Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, Seeking God’s Face: Meditations for the Church Year. David Smith and Robert Cunningham, trans. (Providence, Rhode Island: Cluny, 2020), 27.

[3] Pope Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est, 6.