Good Friday Message, from Fr Paul Kelly

Good Friday and Easter Message . 21^st March, 2008. From Fr Paul Kelly. St Mary’s Catholic Parish, Maryborough.

 

At a quarter past two on Good Friday morning…..  when the power in the presbytery suddenly goes off…. (by no mere technical fault, I am sure), and two suspicious men keep lurking the presbytery and hanging around the Ford store next door (looking furtive), (not the usual type of revellers who wander happily but harmlessly through the church grounds on their way to a tax)… but with obviously nothing good on their minds….. one would be forgiven for becoming really cynical about today’s world and human nature…..  it would be understandable, if we became really down about those who go on a rampage of vandalism and fear…   cracking college windows and scaring elderly people in their homes, and retirement villages… or the endless stories in the news of people taking advantage of others for their own pragmatic gain….  not treating others as if they were their brother or sister……    with eyes looking on all these things… and all the wars and suffering and poverty an injustice….   the logic of the world would say…..   the world is going to the dogs……    (certainly, there are very serious social, economic human issues facing our world and our society…..  we are right to be very concerned…..  the challenge, though, is to realistically face these real obstacles with Christian hope… and with a commitment to respecting the humanity of all people and hoping in the kind of world Jesus died to usher in…..

 

By the standards of the world…..  today is Bad Friday… (and the world couldn’t be worse) and Jesus’ death was a disastrous failure of a “worthwhile dream”……   to the eyes of faith… this is Good Friday… where Christ shows us that God ultimately has the last word – and it is a word of Hope, a word of dignity.. and of LOVE (despite the cynical, but very real things that get thrown up at people as they walk through life in this day and age).

 

Today is not so much about “see how awful us humans have been to God”…. but rather “see how faithful, how loving, how merciful our Lord is to his beloved people……”   we fall at his feet in amazement and thanksgiving. We praise Jesus for his goodness and faithfulness to us (which excel all we ever knew).”  God has given us more than we could ever have hoped for or imagined. 

 

Every year…. without fail….. the account of the Passion of Our Lord,  inspires and renews……  it fills us with a sense of awe…..

 

The Power of Christ’s death on the cross, is humbling ….. as we silently contemplate how much God loves us….. and gave up everything for our sakes…..

 

Jesus betrayal and arrest the previous evening…… his unjust trial, (in which he is really found to be innocent in the process but sentenced to a criminal’s death anyway! because of the insistence of the hysterical crowd..)……The cruel journey to calvary and his unimaginable execution………………only the eyes of Faith could describe this Friday as a “Good Friday”……    but it truly is……   because nothing can destroy God’s faithfulness to his beloved people…..   nothing can defeat the power of God’s love……  Even when we can’t imagine that some actions could ever be forgiven… it is Jesus himself who pleads to the Father that we will embrace the forgiveness that is really offered to us……/  ….   God keeps telling us that we are loved (no matter what may come). And we know that even when everything bad was thrown at Jesus; he continued to respond in love and faithfulness to the Father,….. crucifying all that was negative and death-dealing, on the cross…..  robbing it of its power….

 

I stop to ponder the power of a MOB…….     when Jesus entered Jerusalem.. the crowds worked themselves up into an amazing excitement… they threw down palm fronds and cloaks and hailed Jesus as the King of the people…. the Messiah…….  many people joined in the excitement of the crowd…..   presumably a lot of people joined in the praise of Jesus because they loved what he stood for…. some probably went along because everyone else was doing it……  maybe some hated him and joined in because they followed the crowd….. 

 

only a very short time later… members of that same crowd, (surely many of the same people), were stirred up by a few ……  now saying…  (not hosanna to our King! – but the opposite!!)… get rid of him,….   crucify him … he’s not our king….   kill him…….!!!!    

 

Some people hated Jesus…  but probably most didn’t…. they just went along with the crowd.. they let the mob rule them……..  

 

a group of people can be such a powerful thing… groups can support and nurture all that is good in their shared values…. a group can become a “family”… sharing common support, care and visions……  but groups can also turn nasty… violent… hateful… they can be stirred up by “mob mentalities” / fear and bigotry //….    how many people at Jesus trial really wanted him exectuted????…   and how many just went along with the emotion of the crowd????… and the wave of hatred and jealousy…that had erupted……  

 

the Cross of Christ stands as a reminder that, although we are all members of various communities and groups… each one of us stands before the cross and is asked to make our own personal YES to Jesus…..   and our own personal NO to the peer pressure and unthinking trends..../   shifting values…..that can assail us.

 

in a short while… we will each come before the wood of the cross… where Christ revels his unconditional love for us…..  and asks us to say yes… to the life he gives to us….   our personal acts of veneration….    is our own individual way of saying… “yes”  to the values of one person.. who withstood the enormous pressures of huge numbers .. to be faithful to his vision….   God’s vision.. for a world of forgiveness and justice… and above all….. LOVE.. // which does not stop to count the cost….  which gives without hope of return….

 

The cross of Jesus is to be found reflected in all who mourn…. all who suffer rejection and injustice….   the cross is patterned in the hearts of all who endure illness or pain…. //  Christ’s cross is a silent “YES” to  all who long to be forgiven for past mistakes but don’t dare believe that they can be freed from their guilt and shame………    It is found in the experiences of people persecuted or experiencing fear or unrest throughout the world… whether it be in Tibet or in the house next door to us…..

 

This is a good Friday….  and in the cross is revealed the wisdom and power of God……    most of all….   it reveals God’s constant LOVE.

 

 

“If Easter says anything to us today, it says this: You can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. You can nail it to a cross, wrap it in winding sheets  and shut it in a tomb, but it will rise! “   (Clarence W. Hall).