[stephenkhoo]

06 April, 2012, Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord
THE CROSS CONVICTS US OF SIN AND ITS MISERY AND CONVINCES US OF THE LOVE OF GOD

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Isa 52:13 – 53:12; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42

Why is today called Good Friday? For those who fail to grasp the meaning of His death on the cross for us, His death is anything but good. In fact, it only speaks of a senseless world that even an innocent man who did nothing but good died unjustly. So what does the passion and death of Jesus reveal to us so that the cross can be said to have salvific value? It convicts us of sin and convinces us of the love of God in Jesus’ death on the cross. Indeed, the cross is a judgement against man. In St John’s gospel, it was Pilate and the people who were being judged, not Jesus. He was put on the throne to judge the world of truth although before Pilate, He stood accused by His own people, judged and condemned by the Jews and by a pagan, each citing their own laws and crucified.

So, how does the cross convict us of sin and confront the state of our being? It sheds light on the state of misery of being a sinner. The truth is that sin cuts us away from God. That is why there is a custom of veiling crosses and images from the 5th Week of Lent onwards. The historical reason is that it symbolizes that sinners who are not reconciled with God are shielded from seeing God until they are reconciled to God at Easter.

It symbolizes therefore the state of a sinner. A sinner is one who lives in a state of impiety; that is, godlessness. He is without God. Hence, he has made himself God and takes the place of God. Without God he now has to learn how to fend for himself. When man becomes his own God, he has to find his security and fulfil his needs. Thus, he becomes insecure. To protect himself and his interests, he becomes selfish and protective of his interests. He sees every other person as his enemies. This not only leads to division but sometimes, killing.

A second consequence is that without God, there is no more absolute. Man has made himself God and therefore makes himself the norm of what is right and wrong. He becomes the judge of what is true or not. Of course, no man is absolute. Hence, man comes to conclude that everything is relative. So there is no right or wrong. No more morality, no more sin! We are free! We are free to do what we want. No one can condemn us. No one to judge us. So freedom from God means free to do whatever we want. Hooray!

But why do people refuse God and reject him?

Because they claim that God takes away their freedom. They want to be free. They think that freedom is to do whatever they wish. They fail to realize that freedom is not absolute. Freedom must always be used for the love and service of others. The freedom of this world is un-freedom. By giving in to our passions, indulging in pornography, drinking, etc we become slaves to our passion.

Secondly, they claim that God does not care. They look at the sufferings of the world, especially innocent suffering. They feel that God does not bother about the world. Why should people suffer innocently, especially natural catastrophes or even wars? These could be the circumstances that led people to turn away from God and towards themselves. Since God cannot solve the problem, they take things into their own hands.

Precisely, because we cannot see God any more, due to sin and selfishness, we need the cross to reveal to us the love and wisdom of God. That is why, in the second part of the service at the veneration of the Cross, the celebrant gradually unveils the cross for us to gaze. The scripture readings invite us especially us to contemplate on the cross.

Firstly, the cross reveals to us the immensity of God’s love. God reveals His solidarity with us. He was not content to remain above and save us. He came down from above to be one with us in the incarnation. As if this is not sufficient, He emptied Himself to be a slave for us, even unto death on the cross. Hence, we cannot say that God does not suffer. He suffers as a human person in Jesus. He too suffered injustices. He was condemned for doing good, not for doing evil. For ourselves, most of the time, we deserve it. Jesus did not deserve death and surely not the shameful and cruel death on the cross.

Secondly, the cross reveals to us the wickedness of sin and what sin can do to others as it did to Jesus. When we are selfish, when we no longer have respect for God, we will do anything under the sun. We are no longer ruled by God’s love and truth, but by Satan’s falsehood and selfishness. Sin brings more sins. As we continue to destroy others, we begin to destroy ourselves.

Thirdly, in the cross, Jesus enters into the spiritual depth of a sinner. He was made sin when He knew no sin. He carried upon Himself our infirmities and our sins as well. Jesus knew what it was to be separated from His Father. He is in solidarity with us in our misery in hell. A sinner is all alone. He is cut off from God and from man. He is abandoned like Jesus on the cross. He is cut off from communion. Because a sinner lives for himself, he is imprisoned in his own world. His life is one of misery and pain.

Fourthly, in the cross too, He gives us hope and courage that we can do God’s will. He reveals to us that the true meaning of freedom is obedience. When we are obedient to God’s will, then we are truly free. This might sound paradoxical. But the truth is that when we follow God’s laws, we live a life of true freedom. We are no longer dictated by fear and anxiety. So we can trust God and His love.

No longer can we say that we cannot obey God’s will because Jesus as a human being obeyed the divine will of God. We can do God’s will only if we love God. Jesus loved His Father and chose to die on the cross because He knew that His Father’s desire is to show His love for humanity. Jesus did not have to die. He was not forced to die but He voluntary went to cross out of love for His Father and for humanity, whom the Father loves.But Jesus, a king despised and disfigured, the victim of corrupt justice symbolized in His state of abandonment the degradation to which man can reduce man, yet He remained all the while, in God’s view, the ‘Man for others”, whom we are called on to imitate.

Finally, the cross has no meaning unless seen in the context of the resurrection. We celebrate the cross only because of the resurrection. If not, this cross has no power, although it has love. For this reason we receive communion after venerating the cross. For it is only because He is risen, that the Lord is able to be with us in the Eucharist. The Eucharist, which is the extension of the incarnation and therefore the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, gives us hope that we too will share in the resurrection. Indeed, grace, not sin, has the last word, life not death, love not hatred reign in the end.

Hence, we celebrate truly the Triumph of the Cross as depicted in John’s gospel. We know that the day can be called good because on that day Christ by His death brought life to all – who believe in His name. Accordingly the stress in today’s liturgy is not only on the supreme sacrifice of Christ’s love tested in suffering with its atmosphere of sadness, but we also should be full of joy and hope as we think deeply on the Lord’ s triumph on the cross. Hence, we are called to contemplate On Jesus Crucified. ‘They will look on the one they have pierced’ (JN 19:37) The liturgy of Good Friday gives full expression to this attitude of faith with which the Church looks on the Lamb sacrificed for us. We are called to reflect on Christ the high priest offering Himself to His Father on the cross.

We must now join Jesus in the passion. To celebrate the cross on Good Friday is to embrace the gift of creation now made whole by the sacrifice of Him whose body was raised on the cross. Remember, this veneration of the cross and our communion with its victim is not a free act, without any consequences. By doing so, we commit ourselves to become that which we eat and endure that which we kiss. Bear one another’s cross! We must stand up for justice and fight for the truth like Jesus. We must proclaim the evil of sin in the world. We must proclaim the meaning of truth, freedom and goodness. Finally, we must begin by being reconcilers ourselves through forgiveness again and again. Only love and forgiveness can win over our enemies. Let us serve the world in love and forgiveness. Let us cast into the arms of the crucified Christ and into the blazing furnace of His heart all hatred, all rancour, resentment, envy and rivalry and every desire for revenge.