Good Friday
"We adore you O Christ, and we praise you…because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world"
“Why Did Jesus Have to Die?”
Around 700 B.C., the prophet Isaiah described in detail the execution of the coming savior in Isaiah chapter 53. When this reference is compared to the descriptions of Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the similarities are stunning because Jesus died in precisely the same way that prophets had predicted. Jesus suggested that his death was a necessary element in God’s eternal plan for sending him into the world. He described the purpose of his life in this manner, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. “(John 3:16-17).
St. Anselm in his book "Cur Deus Homo?" explains “Why Did Jesus Have to Die?”. Man cannot atone for his sin against the infinite justice of God. “No sin can be forgiven without satisfaction. God's justice demands that our sins be punished. Not to punish sin would be unjust. God is both just and loving. Therefore, God's love is willing to meet the demands of His justice. But man could not make this satisfaction for himself because the debt is something far greater than he can pay. Moreover, all the service that he can offer to God is already due on other titles. Hence the only way in which the satisfaction could be made, and men could be set free from sin, was by the coming of a Redeemer who is both God and man”. In other words, an infinite debt had to be paid to God for our sins, and only a God-man could pay it by his suffering and death. Out of perfect love for us, Jesus took upon himself the punishment we deserve. The debt was now paid. His love paid the price. It is paid in full and we are free. His passion and death atoned for our sins and redeemed us. That is why St. Paul reminds us: "For you are bought with a great price" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
A man walked into a Cross Shop one day, complaining that his cross was too heavy and rough, and that he needed a new one. He tried out all kinds of crosses, but found each one unsatisfactory - either too short or long, too rough or smooth, too heavy or light. Then he picked up a cross that felt just right and declared that he would take that one. The shop owner, somewhat disappointed, told him that was the cross he came in with!
It takes two pieces of wood to make a cross. That is important for us today, as we celebrate Good Friday and venerate the cross.
The vertical stick could represent God’s love for us. God so loved the world that he sent his only son to die for us. Beaten, scorned, laughed at, ridiculed, and tortured - he accepted it all out of love for us. He took upon himself all our sins. He, the Lamb of God; he, the High Priest, willingly suffered for us to free us from the consequences of our own sins.
Ron Rolheiser, states that Jesus took away our sins by absorbing and transforming sin. How?
The image he uses is that of a water filter. A filter takes in impure water, holds the impurities inside of it, and gives back only pure water. It transforms rather than transmits. We see this in Jesus. Like the ultimate cleansing filter, he purifies life itself. He takes in hatred, holds it, transforms it, and gives back love; he takes in fear, holds it, transforms it, and gives back freedom; he takes in jealousy, holds it, transforms it, and gives back affirmation; he takes in Satan and murder, holds them, transforms them, and gives back only God and forgiveness.
My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus does not want admirers, but imitators, He doesn’t want fans, but followers.
The horizontal stick represents God’s call for us to love one another. It is our response to God’s love in Jesus, and completes the cross. There are two horizontal arms to the cross, and two ways that we can love one another.
The first way is through relationships. God’s greatest hurt is our broken brotherhood. How can we claim to love God, yet go on being rude to each other; take advantage of each other; accuse each other; put each other down; gossip about each other; suspect each other; avoid each other; stay away from gatherings because of our aversion to and fear of each other? Have we not yet learned the most basic truth of our faith; that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus? Yes, one arm of the cross is relationships; how we get along with each other is the measure of our relationship with God.
If you have seen the beautiful Movie called “Amish grace” a lifetime Movie production about forgiveness. After forgiving the person who killed his daughter Mary Beth, Mr. Gideon tells his remaining daughter Katie “Hate is a very hungry thing. If you let it, it will eat up your heart until there is no more room for love.”
The second arm of the cross is service. God’s message through the cross is that we must serve one another. Jesus spoke clearly about that when he said that if anyone wants to be his disciple, he must take up his or her cross and follow him. It is not easy to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, but that is what the cross means. Jesus showed us what it means by accepting to die on the cross for us. The bottom line of following Jesus is that we must let go of our hunger for power, control and glory, and learn to serve one another, to wash each other’s feet each day as we did on Holy Thursday.
Let us welcome our crosses as Jesus did for the atonement of our sins and those of others: We may have been crucified several times in our lives. We may have been betrayed by our dear ones. We may have been misunderstood in the most calculated and deliberate of ways by those whom we trusted and loved. We may have been forced to take up the cross for others several times. We may have felt forsaken and abandoned on several occasions. The question we should ask ourselves on Good Friday is whether we have accepted these painful experiences gracefully from a loving God and offered all these painful occasions as atonement for our sins and for the sins of our dear ones.
"We adore you O Christ, and we praise you…
Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world"
"We adore you O Christ, and we praise you…because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world"
“Why Did Jesus Have to Die?”
Around 700 B.C., the prophet Isaiah described in detail the execution of the coming savior in Isaiah chapter 53. When this reference is compared to the descriptions of Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the similarities are stunning because Jesus died in precisely the same way that prophets had predicted. Jesus suggested that his death was a necessary element in God’s eternal plan for sending him into the world. He described the purpose of his life in this manner, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. “(John 3:16-17).
St. Anselm in his book "Cur Deus Homo?" explains “Why Did Jesus Have to Die?”. Man cannot atone for his sin against the infinite justice of God. “No sin can be forgiven without satisfaction. God's justice demands that our sins be punished. Not to punish sin would be unjust. God is both just and loving. Therefore, God's love is willing to meet the demands of His justice. But man could not make this satisfaction for himself because the debt is something far greater than he can pay. Moreover, all the service that he can offer to God is already due on other titles. Hence the only way in which the satisfaction could be made, and men could be set free from sin, was by the coming of a Redeemer who is both God and man”. In other words, an infinite debt had to be paid to God for our sins, and only a God-man could pay it by his suffering and death. Out of perfect love for us, Jesus took upon himself the punishment we deserve. The debt was now paid. His love paid the price. It is paid in full and we are free. His passion and death atoned for our sins and redeemed us. That is why St. Paul reminds us: "For you are bought with a great price" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
A man walked into a Cross Shop one day, complaining that his cross was too heavy and rough, and that he needed a new one. He tried out all kinds of crosses, but found each one unsatisfactory - either too short or long, too rough or smooth, too heavy or light. Then he picked up a cross that felt just right and declared that he would take that one. The shop owner, somewhat disappointed, told him that was the cross he came in with!
It takes two pieces of wood to make a cross. That is important for us today, as we celebrate Good Friday and venerate the cross.
The vertical stick could represent God’s love for us. God so loved the world that he sent his only son to die for us. Beaten, scorned, laughed at, ridiculed, and tortured - he accepted it all out of love for us. He took upon himself all our sins. He, the Lamb of God; he, the High Priest, willingly suffered for us to free us from the consequences of our own sins.
Ron Rolheiser, states that Jesus took away our sins by absorbing and transforming sin. How?
The image he uses is that of a water filter. A filter takes in impure water, holds the impurities inside of it, and gives back only pure water. It transforms rather than transmits. We see this in Jesus. Like the ultimate cleansing filter, he purifies life itself. He takes in hatred, holds it, transforms it, and gives back love; he takes in fear, holds it, transforms it, and gives back freedom; he takes in jealousy, holds it, transforms it, and gives back affirmation; he takes in Satan and murder, holds them, transforms them, and gives back only God and forgiveness.
My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus does not want admirers, but imitators, He doesn’t want fans, but followers.
The horizontal stick represents God’s call for us to love one another. It is our response to God’s love in Jesus, and completes the cross. There are two horizontal arms to the cross, and two ways that we can love one another.
The first way is through relationships. God’s greatest hurt is our broken brotherhood. How can we claim to love God, yet go on being rude to each other; take advantage of each other; accuse each other; put each other down; gossip about each other; suspect each other; avoid each other; stay away from gatherings because of our aversion to and fear of each other? Have we not yet learned the most basic truth of our faith; that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus? Yes, one arm of the cross is relationships; how we get along with each other is the measure of our relationship with God.
If you have seen the beautiful Movie called “Amish grace” a lifetime Movie production about forgiveness. After forgiving the person who killed his daughter Mary Beth, Mr. Gideon tells his remaining daughter Katie “Hate is a very hungry thing. If you let it, it will eat up your heart until there is no more room for love.”
The second arm of the cross is service. God’s message through the cross is that we must serve one another. Jesus spoke clearly about that when he said that if anyone wants to be his disciple, he must take up his or her cross and follow him. It is not easy to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, but that is what the cross means. Jesus showed us what it means by accepting to die on the cross for us. The bottom line of following Jesus is that we must let go of our hunger for power, control and glory, and learn to serve one another, to wash each other’s feet each day as we did on Holy Thursday.
Let us welcome our crosses as Jesus did for the atonement of our sins and those of others: We may have been crucified several times in our lives. We may have been betrayed by our dear ones. We may have been misunderstood in the most calculated and deliberate of ways by those whom we trusted and loved. We may have been forced to take up the cross for others several times. We may have felt forsaken and abandoned on several occasions. The question we should ask ourselves on Good Friday is whether we have accepted these painful experiences gracefully from a loving God and offered all these painful occasions as atonement for our sins and for the sins of our dear ones.
"We adore you O Christ, and we praise you…
Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world"
No comments:
Post a Comment