Word to the Wise
Friday, April 7, 2023 - Good Friday of the Lord's Passion - ABC
[Isa 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42]Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way' but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. [Isaiah]
These words from the prophet Isaiah - a "song of the suffering servant" - were put into writing centuries before the crucifixion and death of Jesus. To hear this "song" on Good Friday is to hear the lament of all who suffer, especially those who suffer as a result of injustice! But all of us by reason of our humanity will suffer in some way: illness, discrimination, death, grief, hunger, homelessness. [cf. Matt. 25:31-45]. We are tempted by suffering to ask the question, "Where is God?" The great Jewish writer, Elie Wiesel recounts his experience in a Nazi concentration camp when the Nazi's hanged a child in front of the prisoners: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is he? Here he is- he is hanging on this gallows."
As part of the Good Friday liturgical remembrance of the crucifixion, we approach and venerate a plain wooden cross which was unveiled with the words, "Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the salvation of the world." We are that world. Isaiah says it all: "Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured..." Jesus does not watch our suffering from a distant heaven. He is present to us in the very act of suffering. To venerate the cross on this day is to acknowledge his sacrifice FOR us centuries ago but also his solidarity WITH us NOW in our present suffering. AMEN