Homily for Good Friday

Homily for Good Friday

April 22, 2011
John 18-19
Willow Towers, New Rochelle

This is adapted from a homily originally given at the provincial house in 1989.

You may have observed that there are 2 basic crucifixes. The more traditional kind, with the dead or dying Jesus on the cross, represents the crucifixion historically. The 2d type, with a risen or a kingly Christ on it, represents the crucifixion theologically. The 1st kind might be called a synoptic crucifix, based on the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and the 2d kind a Johannine one, based on the Gospel of John. For one of the major differences between the Synoptic Gospels and John’s Gospel is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke present the glorification of Christ as taking place in his resurrection and ascension, while for John it takes place in the passion and on the cross.
 

How is Jesus glorified in John’s account of the passion? First, the only one in control of himself and of the situation is Jesus. He’s not afraid, like Peter. He’s not flustered by the situation, floundering for a way to handle it, like Pilate. He doesn’t lie and deceive to get results, like the chief priests. It’s Jesus who controls the flow of events, who decides when it’s time to act. He goes in or out when he’s ready. He seizes the initiative in the dialogs. He decides when he will hand over his spirit.

Jesus' view from the cross, by James Tissot

Jesus assumes a heroic stature by laying down his life for his friends. As he said at the Last Supper, no one has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). In secular life, we regard such people as heroes, as worthy of glory, and we erect statues to them and proclaim their praises.

Jesus is proclaimed a king in the accusations made against him, in being mocked, in the inscription written above his head. Even his enemies unintentionally glorify him with his title. He is a universal king, for the inscription is in all the major languages of Jerusalem.

Jesus has fulfilled the scriptures. John says 8 times that this or that was done “that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (12:38; 15:25; 17:12; 18:9,32; 19:24,28,36). Jesus has done all that God wanted. He’s revealed God’s infinite love. He’s obeyed the Father in everything. So he can announce, “It is finished” (19:30). He has glorified his Father in everything and to the utmost, and that is his glory.

Finally, it’s at the cross that the Church is born. The water and the blood that pour from his pierced side are sacramental symbols, symbols of the Baptism and the Eucharist that constitute the Church. But we may miss the sign in Jesus’ handing over his spirit (19:30). That means not only handing it over to the Father, as in Luke’s “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (23:46), but also his handing it over to, bestowing it upon, the Church, represented by the faithful women and the beloved disciple standing beneath the cross. And the Church is Christ’s glory.

John’s account of the passion, then, seems to mean that glorification is linked with suffering, with obedience, with mortal combat against the powers of darkness. The powers of darkness are so thoroughly opposed to the light that is Jesus that they must come looking for him with lanterns and torches even on a nite when there’s a full moon (it’s Passover), and they have trouble finding him and are repelled by his presence.

The Crucifixion, by Tintoretto

Those powers of darkness in our world are all the powers of sin: illness and age, ignorance and loneliness, injustice and poverty—everything that causes or reflects our selfish alienation from God and from our brothers and sisters.

We experience the power of darkness personally: in our weakness and our sinfulness, in the evils inflicted upon us, in the whole story of our lives. We experience this darkness communally in the stories of our families, our nation, our Church. When we face these evil powers with the dignity and the truth of Jesus, with the powers of his sacramental life, with his Holy Spirit, then our combat with those powers becomes our glory too, our way of fulfilling all that the Father gives us to do. Then we grow into our discipleship as individuals and as families, nation, Church. If you follow sports, you know that coaches often tell their athletes, “No pain, no gain.” That’s a truth of the spiritual life too. Our suffering unites us with the cross of Christ, which is always the price of being faithful to the Father. And being faithful is the way of glory.