Commentary on the Gospel of
It’s Good Friday!
Here we are on Good Friday! Today the Lord Jesus lays down his life, redeeming the world!
The process is a tough passage from being the Man of action to being the Man of the Passion! He who was commanding that the blind see and they saw, the lame walk and they walked, the possessed be set free and they were set free, the dead rise and they arose, is now held hostage, questioned, condemned and hung to death! It’s indeed an emotionally packed dynamic: anger and sadness, fear and anxiety, disgust and disappointment, name them! Yet, this is the moment that the world is saved forever!!
From time to time each one of us endures such transitions. From being very well to being hospitalized, from being very rich to becoming poor; from being sportive to being bedridden; from being counselor to becoming depressive! Sometimes the question arises: what is this life all about?
Our evangelist of the day seems to be using two cameras – while one was focusing on Jesus, the other focused on the disciples. Judas, for instance, moved from leading the cohort to arrest Jesus to depressively hanging himself!! And Peter jumped from actively defending Jesus, cutting off the ear of the servant, to lowly repentance after denying his knowledge of Jesus!! We see Jesus shift from actively leading at the Last Super to being led away to be executed!!!
The major difference which draws our attention is that while Jesus passed through his passion, interiorly he remained in-charge of his connectedness with the Father! In Gethsemane He powerfully prepared himself – letting the will of His Father be done, and while hanging on the cross, when the pains were excruciating he remained convincingly focused and resolute: Father forgive them! Each one of us needs this deeply rooted faith expression in the midst of difficulties, challenges and helplessness. Our Father is closeby!
