Jesus dies to be born again. He dies to rise again.
He gives Himself to allow us to be.
April 10th, 2020
Holy Friday
(Draft)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
“Everything is fulfilled“, says Jesus.
The Son of God dies to be born again, He dies to rise again, He gives Himself to allow us to be.
On this Good Friday we all pause to contemplate Jesus, our Jesus, our brother Jesus, our friend Jesus, our Master Jesus, our God Jesus, who immolated Himself on the cross for our salvation.
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”, St Paul wonders and asks us.
Jesus lets Himself be swallowed by death, not to succumb, but to win and to allow us to win; He lets Himself be swallowed by death in order to triumph and to allow all His faithful sons to triumph, for their having chosen, over time and betimes, to live, on His example and in His Name, and to die to the world, to be reborn and to achieve victory in Christ the Lord.
Jesus really died. Jesus truly suffered every pain to redeem us.
So many fail to understand the human ordeal that the Man Jesus endured in those moments.
Jesus experienced a true, unspeakable pain that for many would have been unbearable. Jesus, in those moments, as Man experienced and felt the true fear, the true anguish, the true human despondency. This is what this world cannot and does not want to understand: the human and divine nature of the God-Man Jesus.
Jesus experienced the pain of the betrayal of a friend who betrayed Him after having received nothing but love, in fullness. Jesus felt pain because of the betrayal of so many who, after having been healed, after having received so many signs, in an only second turned against Him and let themselves be overcome by fear of that religious power.
Jesus experienced anguish, sweating blood in that heartfelt prayer He made before His capture. Jesus felt the pain of the scourge that entered His flesh, tearing His flesh apart. Jesus suffered excruciating pain when the piercing thorns lacerated His head, by those who crowned Him in mockery. Jesus experienced pain, carrying the Cross, climbing that path that was to lead Him to Calvary, going far beyond all physical limits of human endurance, falling on the ground, but always getting back up with dignity, so to be able to go to the very end to accomplish everything, to then be pierced by those nails that lacerated His hands and His feet, to then be raised on the Cross before His afflicted Mother.
Jesus endured and conquered all this, every moral and physical pain, thanks to the power of His Spirit, that living Spirit that allowed Him to overcome and go beyond fear, beyond the anguish and human despondency. Jesus won thanks to the certainty of the Father’s Love, thanks to the certainty that the Father would never abandon Him. In that heartfelt appeal addressed to the Father: “Father, why have you forsaken me?“, Jesus the Man, in His humanity, calls the Father, seeks the Father, invokes the Father, knowing that the Father, even more, right there, in that moment, was holding Him tightly to Himself, in His holy arms of Good and Holy Father.
Woe to him who exploits that invocation by saying that, at that moment, Jesus blasphemes the Father and further claiming that the mystery would be precisely that! Here is the perfidy, the wickedness, the falsehood of him who is deceitful, of him who is animated by that same spirit that entered Judas and that issues from a different father, who is not holy but evil, malignant, that same spirit that animated the supreme pontiff and the pharisees of the temple, that once was and now no longer is. On the cross, Jesus did not ‘become a serpent’ or, even worse, a ‘devil’, as stated by others, nor did He become ‘all sin’, nor did He become ‘disgustingly ugly’. How ignominious are these statements! He who has affirmed this does not know human shame, but manifests rather the nature of his spirit, an evil, vengeful spirit, angry at the defeat suffered at that moment of the Cross, where Jesus, meek Lamb, humble and obedient to the Father’s will, redeemed the world by His sacrifice.
This is the true story of God who won in those moments which no one will now be able to change at their convenience. Jesus overcame evil and the evil one, He overcame all the children of the evil one, those of yesterday and those of today, in the waiting for the final defeat of the evil one for eternity.
Jesus descended to the underworld after that moment of death, to then ascend and open the gates of Heaven, to open and uncover the tombs of those who were waiting for that moment to rise again and live for eternity. The tombs were opened to bring out those who, being holy, could rejoice in that moment. Those same tombs were then ready to receive those who, after fighting against the Son of God, sank in there for eternity.
In Jesus there is no death, there is life.
Here is the descent from Heaven, here in the New Jerusalem, to fulfil the plan of redemption for humanity.
Here is our co-participating today in that moment of sorrow, of the Cross, wanting by this, by our love, to console His Heart.
May our love, our living faithfulness, be balm for You, dear Jesus. Never shall we forsake You. This is the promise we want to renew today to Your Heart, in order to give You love, joy and solace, to give You thanks for the sacrifice You have undergone for us.
Thank You Jesus: we Your sons thank You and adore You for having conquered the world, for having conquered death. And on Your example we want to follow You in order to be able to rise again already from now, in this life, to never betray Your Person, Your call, and to give joy to Your Mother’s Heart, to never see Her weeping again, wanting to console Her, and to embrace the Heavenly Father who embraced You at that moment of the Cross, holding You close to Himself.
To You, Father, our fervent prayer on this day, wanting to be united with Your Jesus in fullness.
Help us, Father, to become as faithful as Jesus was faithful; grant us Your strength so to be able to overcome evil and all its children, to be able to console Your Heart and lead this humanity to victory, in Christ, with Christ and for Christ.
May Your living blessing, today, Father, descend upon us, upon the whole world, so that all may return to You, in Jesus, with Jesus, for Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.