Heroic passion and wedding

The Christian Church gathers in the afternoon of Good Friday to encounter again, through the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary, the deepest of Mysteries about God and the nature of Love and behaviour of humanity in our struggle with power, pride, political position and privilege. Father Larry Gilllick SJ sees the narrative in the texts of the liturgy today in the classic form of “A hero leaves, journeys, and returns with the prize of wisdom gained through the adventure of the facing of mystery” He notes that the The First and Second Readings (Isaiah and Hebrews) for this liturgy speak of two heroes who let go of former identities to become Servants of Suffering. They leave the familiar and obediently surrender to a suffering state of service. Friar Jude Winkler steps into the mystery of how deeply the narrative of the fourth suffering servant of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is Jesus. He also mentions the text of Psalm 22 as description of the Passion of Jesus. In the Mystery and the many symbols which enrich the writing of the Evangelist John about Jesus passion, there is an observation by Friar Jude of the literary structure which uses an odd number of scenes ( 7 between Jesus and Pilate ) to focus at the central scene the crowning of Jesus as King. In John, Jesus reigns as King from the throne of the Cross. The mystery of the apparent contradiction of the King dying as one hated and denied by His people is expressed by Father Larry as “The humanity of Jesus would be searching for validation, support, affirmation. What his humanity experienced is abuse, shame and denial. The surroundings challenge his identity and he is a winner, because he remains listening to something deeper than the voices of his surroundings.” The Will of the Father to have Jesus be, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews understands, both priest and offering to God points us to the mystery of Love in the Truth of the situation which Pilate and the Jewish authorities attempt to use for their own self serving purposes. In the wedding of Jesus to the Church, represented by Mary at the foot of the Cross, there will be a widow, the Church. As Jesus gives Mary to the beloved disciple (to us, the brothers of Christ) we inherit the obligation under Jewish tradition to raise children (with the name Christian) for our brother Jesus. The deep Mystery is where we continue to be reassured of Love beyond human limitations and the constraints of a temporal world.