Good Friday

The Easter Triduum, which we have now been called to enter has been described in many ways by so many preachers, teachers and authors.  These three days are one continuous celebration of The Paschal Mystery.  The celebration begins with the sign of the cross on Holy Thursday. (This sign marks the beginning of all Catholic rituals.) This sign is not made again until the end of The Easter Vigil celebration on Holy Saturday. To repeat myself as I am want to do !!!! It takes 40 days of Lent to prepare for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery. It takes three days to celebrate and another 50 to help us understand its dynamic power.  A power that transfigures and transforms and leads to, “a terrible beauty being born.” (Yeats).

We are invited to enter into the celebration from the place we are actually at in the reality of our human condition.  The more honest we are about where we are, where all our relationships are, the clearer will be voice of The Paschal Mystery.  It will speak to us a message of Hope. This message is not intended for the successful,  rather this hope-filled message is geared for the bruised, the abused,  the broken, the battered, the mocked, the shamed, in other words for all of us who at one time or another have gotten to the point of: "My God, My God, why have You abandoned me."  "God I am so empty, and alone, where are You? "Out of the depths I cry to You O Lord, Lord hear my cry." This prayer when coming from our depths, from our guts seems always to be answered Jesus went to His Calvary once.  How often do we encounter crucible of our Calvaries?  This hard fact I can share with you; we go to that place of abandonment not once but again and again, ever deeper into desperation, fear and supreme powerlessness.  The hope-filled message that comes with each and every kenosis, this emptying out, is a new and a more vibrant, compassionate understanding is awakened.  We now have been provided with a new set of lenses through which we view ourselves and other human beings.  Those who have not encountered The Passion in this way, will have no compassion to offer.  They will have hardened hearts.  The more hardened the heart, the more it will take to break that hardened shell, so as to reveal the heart of flesh.  All human beings are at an immersion point, unique to them and their journey.

Holy Thursday offers so much for reflection.   It is a spiritual buffet.  This buffet feeds our spiritual food.  This is the day when the first mass was offered.  This was the day of first communion.  This was the day of betrayal and rejection by those who shared the first Eucharistic table.  Peter, who promised so much, was effusive in his denial of his Master.  The Master he was inspired to call, The Christ.  How fast, how far, how hard can we as human beings fall???  Hold the phone!!!  God was NOT finished with Peter. Who did he become, the first Pope!!!  Try that on for size!!!  God’s ways are not our ways, and thank God for that. His mercy-full ways are way beyond our comprehension and understanding.  The disciples were not able to understand The Master, when He got up and indicated He wanted to wash their feet.  The foot washer in houses was the responsibility of the lowest slave. Now Jesus, Who was Master and Lord, was teaching those gathered a lesson in humility and what it means to be a servant leader.  How sad we have lost sight of The Suffering Servant of the New Testament and acts of healing and compassion.  Gifts not for those who appeared to deserve such gifts, but to those who did not comply with the then standards of "right behavior."  As it was with The Son, so it is with His Prodigal Father.  This Prodigal Father and His reckless and extravagant love for all, not for the few chosen, as some so called Christians seem to think and preach.  No wonder there are more "nones" challenging the authenticity of today’s religious teachings. The "nones" are attracted to what healthy spirituality offers.  A healthy spirituality of The Paschal Mystery is the source of a language that speaks to the human condition in all of its lived reality. In all reality is hidden and revealed Reality Itself.

Now, we go with Jesus and those with Him to Garden at Gethsemane. He goes a distance from those with Him. He starts to pray.  Because He was from Galilee He would know the prophet Isaiah and The Song  of the Suffering Servant.  He would have been brought up knowing every detail of the suffering in which the Servant was prophesied to endure. (I am not going into a long dissertation on the knowledge of the human Jesus.) He recoiled from that prospect, "Father, would that this cup pass from Me." Here we see the human Jesus reacting in a very human manner.  What was a further journey into what it means to be human, Jesus, the Beloved Son broke into a sweat of blood.  I have asked this question so often over the years, "How many here can break into a sweat of blood?" Over the years, not too many. The share this proven fact, "You all can break into a sweat of blood if you get that scared." That is the truth...Do not accept my word for it Google  "sweat of blood" and the word hermatridross will appear. It will explain how a person,  if they are so stressed will break into a sweat of blood. In the garden, Jesus was able to pray to His Father from His pain, "Father, not my will but your will be, done."  Then he goes on to encounter His betrayer.  One who had shared the one bread and the one cup.  That betrayal lead to Him being scourged, mocked, ridiculed, shamed, beaten and crucified.  As it was with Jesus, the Prophet, so it is with you and I who are called to be prophets today.  Not a very comfortable job to have???  Good Friday will reveal how uncomfortable was Our Master, Whose voice we hear and in Whose footsteps we tread or better still trudge.