On Good Friday, what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

 

I don't have a preaching assignment for this day so I'm sharing with you my Good Friday homily from 2018 and the gospel on which it's based.  There are musical elements in this homily which you'll miss if you don't listen to the audio.

 

The story of Christ's passion reveals the love of Jesus for each person. In light of this, the crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed indiscriminately to all the Jews of that time - nor to Jews today. The Jewish people should not be referred to as though rejected or cursed - as if this view followed from Scripture. The Church ever keeps in mind that Jesus, his mother Mary, and the apostles all were Jewish. As the Church has always held, Christ freely suffered his passion and death because of the sins of all, that all might be saved.

Audio for homily

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The suffering and death of the crucified Jesus

stare us in the face.

What are we to do with this?

What are we to do with the suffering of Jesus?

the death of Jesus?

What are we to do with the love of Christ

who laid down his pure and innocent life for us,

the sinful and the guilty?

What are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

After supper with his friends, on the night before he died,

Jesus went into the garden to pray 

- and his betrayer was there.

Judas was there, and I was there, and you were there,

all of us were there –

  betraying his perfect love for us  

    - with our selfishness and sins,

  betraying the innocent one 

    with our transgressions –

  betraying him unto death.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

And later in the courtyard, Peter

- just hours before filled with faith and bravado -

Peter denied that he even knew Jesus.

And we were in the courtyard, you and I,

in  that same courtyard,

we were there denying, 

many more than three times denying our faith in Jesus.

We were in that courtyard denying him

with our fear of being known as Catholic Christians,

with our reluctance to name Jesus as the Lord of our lives,

with our desire to protect our sophisticated selves

and enhance how others perceive us…

We were there in the courtyard,

denying by word and deed that we even know Jesus

- denying him unto death.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

And with the chief priests 

you and I handed Jesus over to death,

hiding behind the law to shield our unjust deeds.

With Pilate in the praetorium

you and I condemned Jesus to death 

by our playing with the truth.

With the crowds outside 

you and I called for Jesus’ death

by going along with what everyone’s saying,

what everyone’s doing.

We conspired, you and I, 

by our selfishness and sins,

we conspired to condemn Jesus.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because by the mercy and grace of Jesus, his death

is the forgiveness of our selfishness and our sins.

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because in the offering of his heart and life

our hearts are healed,  and our lives redeemed.

• We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because our hearts can know no greater love

than the love of One

who lays down his life for ours.

Such is the mystery of our redemption

in the suffering and death of Jesus.

In the face of it, we have nothing to offer in return

and so, this is what we do:

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because his dying is our living

- and so we remain with Jesus the Christ.

It is Good Friday

and the suffering and death of the crucified Jesus

stare us in the face.

What are we to do with this?

What are we to do

with the love of Christ in his suffering for us?

What are we to do with the love of Christ

in his dying for us?

What are we to do

with him who laid down his pure and innocent life for us 

- the sinful and the guilty?

What are we to do with the suffering and death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ. 

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