Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Weeping Women by Willem Hofhuizen

Homily for Good Friday

(sung) Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Is that so?
Does the thought of Jesus suffering and dying for my sins,
sometimes cause me to “tremble, tremble, tremble?”

How do we understand the story we have all just heard?
Is it just a story, even if a true story?
Is it simply a moving account
of one man’s extraordinary goodness?
Have I only heard the story -- second-hand,
or, was I there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified the Lord?

I was there...

And you were there...

At least our sins were there:
- every failure of yours and mine to love God
and to love our neighbor as ourselves;
- every failure of yours and mine
to live according to the Lord’s word;
- every failure of yours and mine to do what is just
and to make peace -
all of this, which is part of all-of-us,
was there -when they crucified our Lord.

And we were there together, as a church,
a church painfully, sinfully tolerant of so much abuse,
the most tragic of which was the abuse of innocent children.
We were there as a church
so grotesquely proud and protective of its reputation
that Christ’s body, now, again,
is mocked, insulted and despised.

You and I, and all of us together through the ages:
we were there when they crucified the Lord…

We were there when Jesus, the Christ, our Passover Lamb,
took upon his innocent shoulders:
- the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is true, right, just and good;
of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is real, pure, chaste and beautiful,
- the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
than what is life-giving, nurturing and loving;
of all the times we put ourselves and our desires ahead of others,
marginalizing and excluding others, forgetting the poor
while we ourselves have more than we need…

I was there and you were there,
the church was there and the world was there
when they crucified the Lord
because he took on his shoulders all our sins:
the ones we remember;
the ones we have forgotten;
and even the sins we have not yet committed -- but surely will.

(sung) Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

(point to Crucifix over the altar)

Look!
There is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world!

Oh, God of love and mercy:
you are always ready to forgive.
Time and time again we broke your covenant
but you did not abandon us.
Instead, through your Son, Jesus,
you bound yourself even more closely to the human family
by a bond that can never be broken.
When we were lost and could not find the way to you,
you loved us more than ever.
Jesus, innocent and without sin,
gave himself into our hands
and was nailed to a cross for our sins...*

For our sins:
for yours and for mine,
for the sins of the church and of the whole world -
Jesus suffered and he died…

(sung) Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

We don’t recall these things tonight to make us feel
guilty, or sad, or uncomfortable.
Rather, we remember these things so that sometimes,
at least once, we might tremble, tremble, tremble,
as we ponder the weight of our sins
on our brother’s innocent shoulders
and come to glory in the cross of Jesus
who is our life and our resurrection,
who is the One in whom we are forgiven, saved and delivered.

For if we do not see the love
with which Jesus shouldered our sins
and laid down his life for us, his unfaithful friends,
how shall we ever know the victory of his Cross,
the exquisite, bitter-sweet gift of his Cross
which makes of us his redeemed friends?

(sung) Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

O Jesus:
You are our Passover, our lasting peace.
You are the lamb,
slain for us that the angel of death,
finding us washed in your blood,
might spare us and save us for everlasting life.

What, then, shall we render to you, Lord,
what shall offer in return for such undeserved mercy?

We will give you glory, Jesus -
our innocent brother who suffered for us all…

We will give you glory, Jesus -
merciful Lord, Lamb of God,
who takes away our sins and the sins of the world…

We will give you glory, Jesus,
Savior and Redeemer, risen Lord,
even now as we remember your suffering and death…

(sung) Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble…
Were you there when they crucified my Lord…

*Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation 1


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