Good Friday: Celebration of the Passion of the Lord

April 19, 2019
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42

Pilate asks Jesus if He is a king. Pilate is interested in what narrative he will receive from Jesus in answer to this question. A narrative is nothing more than a story that conveys a partial perspective of the truth that is really nothing more than articulated opinion. Narratives are frequently offered out of self-interest. Pilate was used to dealing in the narratives of so many interested parties who came to him in order for him to impose his power upon a situation in favor of their private interests. People would come to Pilate, as had the high priests, to give him their narrative in such a way that their interests could coincide with those of Pilate, and then they could get their way. So, the high priests speak their narrative that Jesus has made himself to be a king — a rival to Caesar as well as a rival to them — so it would be for Pilate’s convenience to do away with Jesus to improve his political standing with Caesar. Pilate wants to hear Jesus’ narrative in asking Him the question because he wants to know if Jesus has interests that coincide with his own that are even better than what the high priests have brought him.

Jesus answers Pilate not with opinion but as the Truth. Jesus is the Truth. Jesus tells Pilate, “You say that I am a king, for this I was born and for this I came into the world to testify to the Truth; everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to my voice.” Pilate cynically answers, “What is Truth?” This question of Pilate sums up his sad narrative: Pilate belongs not to the Truth but rather to nothing. This narrative remains a dominant narrative in our media, in our political life, and in our own rationalizations for our personal and social sins.

Jesus does not say a lot in this Passion account; He speaks less as the Passion account moves closer to His death. He is silent in the midst of the angry screams and accusations made by the crowds; He is silent in the midst of the scheming casuistry of the high priests; and He is mostly silent before Pilate. At one with Him in His silence is His mother, Mary. She stands with Him at the foot of the Cross with the Beloved Disciple with an immaculate love that surpasses even the naturally powerful bond between a mother and her son.

Pope Francis observed, “Festive acclamations and brutal torture; the silence of Jesus throughout his Passion is profoundly impressive. He also overcomes the temptation to answer back, to act like a ‘superstar.’ In moments of darkness and great tribulation, we need to keep silent, to find the courage not to speak, as long as our silence is meek and not full of anger. The meekness of silence will make us appear even weaker, more humble. Then the devil will take courage and come out into the open. We need to resist him in silence, ‘holding our position,’ but with the same attitude as Jesus. He knows that the battle is between God and the prince of this world, and that what is important is not putting our hand to the sword but remaining firm in faith. It is God’s hour. At the hour that God comes forth to fight, we have to let him take over. Our place of safety will be beneath the mantle of the holy Mother of God.”

The silence of Jesus and the accompanying silence of Mary are because God is speaking now. God is speaking the Truth and not offering a competitive narrative or compelling argument certainly in the manner of the high priests who seek control of a corrupt system of religious leadership, or Pilate who seeks political advancement as a transfer from Palestine, or the crowds who seek the compelling narrative of a messiah like Barabbas. God is speaking the Truth and offers no narrative to impose His way through manipulation. He speaks the Truth fully that no narrative could ever fully encompass except the fullness of the Truth spoken on the Cross. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that “human salvation demands the Divine disclosure of Truth surpassing reason.” God’s Word is eternal and it is spoken on the Cross. The Cross of Jesus is the Truth to which He testifies. The Truth is Himself. The fullness of the Truth is the unconditional love of God who gives His Son to ransom us from the power of evil and sin. He gives His Son that we might not settle for any narrative of lies conjured and cobbled together as partial truths when God offers us instead the fullness of the Truth who is Jesus. He gives His Son as the Truth which like love cannot impose itself on anyone. The Truth and Love that are Jesus requires a free acceptance in loving obedience of a share in His Cross. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Deus Caritas Est, “It is only by looking at Jesus dead on the Cross for us can this fundamental truth be known and contemplated: God is Love. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move.”

Jesus Christ on the Cross is the Truth spoken by God. Jesus Christ on the Cross reveals the Truth of humanity in all its death-dealing ugliness rooted in the sin of the Garden and the lie of the serpent. Jesus Christ on the Cross at the same time reveals the Truth of God in all His perfect justice, life-giving mercy, and healing forgiveness that pays the price of sin and death by the sacrifice of His own Son.

Mary standing at the foot of the Cross of Her Son, preserved from stain of sin at her Immaculate Conception, is the only human being who can say in communion with God, “to ransom a slave I gave away a Son.” As Pope Francis recently preached, “At the foot of the cross, Mary thought once more of the words that the angel had spoken about her Son: ‘He will be great… The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’” (Lk 1:32-33) On Golgotha, Mary witnesses the rejection by sinful humanity of that promise: her Son’s brutal death on a cross among thieves. On Golgotha, Mary at the same time witnesses the fulfillment of that promise by God standing at the throne of Her fully human Son, which is the Cross where He wears His crown made of thorns and vanquishes the power of Hell and cunning of the devil, for in His dying it is finished. Mary with Christ keeps silent, because God is speaking.

Good Friday: Celebration of the Passion of the Lord

Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man!)
1871, Public Domain

March 30, 2018
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42

Pilate ends where he should begin, “What is Truth?” The cunning and manipulative character of Pilate is displayed when he moves from asking cynically as to what is truth to his self-serving declaration before the crowd that he finds no guilt in Jesus. Even that statement is non-committal because he does not declare Christ to be innocent, as Christ uniquely and truly is innocent; he waffles and subtly says that he finds no guilt in Jesus. The hand washing begins. Of course, how could one witness to guilt or innocence, right or wrong, virtue or vice, life or death if one has no room for the truth? Pilate with firm purpose omits to state that he finds Christ to be innocent. Pilate lies by omission and with cunning and cowardice. It is the Truth that is crucified today and every day when we cowardly fail to witness to the high priest’s interrogation of the nature of Christ’s doctrine—the Truth in Love.

The cynical Pilate becomes even more self-serving as he places before the people two figures to choose between: Jesus and Barabbas. The name Barabbas means “son of the father” —Bar Abba. From a bystander’s perspective Jesus and Barabbas are very similar—each challenged the status quo; each have similar names “Son of the father” and “the Lord God saves.” In a sense, Pilate places Barabbas next to Jesus as an option for the type of Messiah that the people can choose for themselves. There is Barabbas, a Messiah who is a violent and dynamic revolutionary who conspires and wages war against the authority of an oppressive regime and thereby brings about anarchy. Barabbas promises them freedom to do whatever one would want to do. Barabbas offers them an earthly kingdom of one’s own prosperity. Next to Barabbas, Pilate places Jesus. In Jesus they have a Messiah who proclaims that losing oneself is the way to life. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who hides nothing and is the Light of the World. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who calls them to obedience to the will of the Father and who lives it. It is Jesus who is the Messiah of the Cross.

The prince of this world is a liar. He knows the truth well enough to hate it. He is cunning and not so blatant as to advertise openly that we should worship the devil. He only suggests that we should decide on what is reasonable; opt for the advantages of a planned and thoroughly organized world with impeccable communication. Choose the world in which there is room for God in an individual’s life as a private concern but not a place for God to interfere in one’s essential and primary purposes. It is much more reasonable not to be inconvenienced by the Son of Mary, the Nazarene known as a carpenter, who asks so much of us in offering His life fully in sacrificial love. Any false religion subtly attempts to hide the Cross from view, or at least to make it tolerable only as a form of decoration but to remove its sacrificial character as the entrance of the Divine love into the world of humanity.

Without the crucified Christ we are lost. So, Jesus gives us Mary, His own Blessed Mother to be our mother as His last gift to us from the Cross. Mary, our Mother, shows us the bravery of discipleship and silently answers the high priest’s interrogation by her attention and presence at the Cross of her Son—her humble and peaceful witness to the Truth. The sword pierces her heart. Her loving and hopeful surrender to the will of the Father in assisting Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will—consistent since the Annunciation—in offering His life for our salvation strengthens us and shows us what we must do with gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us.

Mary shows us that there is nothing secret with her Son’s mission or doctrine. Christ means what He says and He says what He means. In so doing, Mary represents the Church. She stands precisely where the Church can only stand—at the foot of the Cross. In our membership in the Church, we cannot hide anything that Christ has revealed or taught us in Scripture and Tradition because that is what He taught and how He taught it. We also cannot adequately live our Christian faith, given to us by Christ, without the assistance, example, and intercession of our Blessed Mother who stands openly by us in our own share in her Divine Son’s Cross thereby fulfilling her share in the mission of Christ to be our Mother and for us to be her children marked by the sign of the Cross of Christ crucified.

Homily for Good Friday, Celebration of the Passion of the Lord

April 14, 2017
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42

The high priest questions Jesus in the account of the Passion that we have just proclaimed. The high priest questions Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus’ responds to the high priest, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.”

Jesus’ response reveals that it is for us to answer the question of the high priest. We’ve heard Jesus speak to us. Well, do we know what He taught us and what he said to us? Do we really believe it? How do we answer the high priests of our contemporary world when they ask us what Jesus has taught us in the Gospel revealed in Sacred Scripture and in the Tradition of the authentic teaching of his Church? Do we witness clearly or do we run and hide? Do we stand at the foot of the Cross with the Blessed Mother and the Beloved Disciple, or do we deny Christ as we lurk in the shadows of conformity with the contemporary world steeped in relativism and apathy for all that is good and true?

Perhaps, Pilate too frequently provides the grounding for our response to the high priest’s question with his own cynicism, “What is Truth?” The manipulative character of Pilate is displayed when he moves from asking cynically as to what is truth to his self-serving declaration before the crowd that he finds no guilt in Jesus. How can one witness to guilt or innocence, right or wrong, virtue or vice, if one has no room for the truth? Pilate with firm purpose omits to state that he finds Christ to be innocent. Pilate lies by omission. He short-sells the fullness of the truth. It is the Truth that is crucified today and every day when we cowardly fail to witness to the high priest’s interrogation of the nature of Christ’s doctrine—the Truth in Love.

Without Christ we are lost. So, Jesus gives us Mary, his own Blessed Mother to be our mother as his last gift to us from the Cross. Mary shows us the bravery of discipleship and silently answers the high priest’s interrogation by her attentiveness at the Cross of her Son—her witness to the Truth. Her loving and hopeful surrender to the will of the Father in assisting Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will in offering his life for our salvation strengthens us and shows us what we must do with gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us. Mary shows us that there is nothing secret with her Son’s mission or doctrine. We cannot hide anything that Christ has revealed or taught us in Scripture and Tradition. We cannot adequately live our Christian faith, given to us by Christ, without the assistance, example, and intercession of our Blessed Mother who stands by us in our own share in her Divine Son’s Cross. The answer to the high priest’s question that Jesus asks us to answer is that of love, the sacrifice of the Cross, the statement of truth, the fullness of the truth spoken with courage, and hope in the face of sin and death.