The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion in the liturgy of the Triduum resonate with our experiences of the Cross in the difficulties of our journey.
Good Friday
The reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah describes the situation of the Suffering Servant.
* [52:13–53:12] The last of the “servant of the Lord” oracles (see note on 42:1–4). Taken together, these oracles depict a figure of one called by God for a vocation to Israel and the nations (42:4; 49:5–6); the servant’s exaltation both opens and closes the passage (52:13; 53:12). The servant responded in fidelity but has suffered opposition (50:4–6). In this fourth oracle the servant is characterized as “a man of suffering” (53:3) and appears to be unjustly put to death (53:8–9). Those who have witnessed his career somehow recognize that he is innocent, has undergone suffering for their sins (53:4–6), and his death is referred to as a reparation offering (see note on 53:10–11). The servant is described in ways that identify him with Israel (which is frequently referred to as “servant” in the context of Second Isaiah—e.g., 41:8, 9; 44:2, 21; 43:4) and is designated as “Israel” in 49:3; yet Israel outside the “servant of the Lord” oracles is not presented as sinless, but rather in exile because of sin (40:2; 42:21–25) and even as servant as deaf and blind (42:18–19). The servant is thus both identified with Israel and distinguished from it. As with the previous servant poems, this chapter helped the followers of Jesus to interpret his suffering, death, and resurrection; see especially the passion narratives.1
Psalm 31 is a prayer and praise for deliverance from enemies.
* [Psalm 31] A lament (Ps 31:2–19) with a strong emphasis on trust (Ps 31:4, 6, 15–16), ending with an anticipatory thanksgiving (Ps 31:20–24). As is usual in laments, the affliction is couched in general terms. The psalmist feels overwhelmed by evil people but trusts in the “God of truth” (Ps 31:6).2
The reading from the Letter to the Hebrews presents Jesus as the Great High Priest.
* [4:14–16] These verses, which return to the theme first sounded in Heb 2:16–3:1, serve as an introduction to the section that follows. The author here alone calls Jesus a great high priest (Heb 4:14), a designation used by Philo for the Logos; perhaps he does so in order to emphasize Jesus’ superiority over the Jewish high priest. He has been tested in every way, yet without sin (Heb 4:15); this indicates an acquaintance with the tradition of Jesus’ temptations, not only at the beginning (as in Mk 1:13) but throughout his public life (cf. Lk 22:28). Although the reign of the exalted Jesus is a theme that occurs elsewhere in Hebrews, and Jesus’ throne is mentioned in Heb 1:8, the throne of grace (Heb 4:16) refers to the throne of God. The similarity of Heb 4:16 to Heb 10:19–22 indicates that the author is thinking of our confident access to God, made possible by the priestly work of Jesus.3
The Passion Account from the Gospel of John proclaims the journey from the Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus to the Burial of Jesus.
* [19:16] He handed him over to them to be crucified: in context this would seem to mean “handed him over to the chief priests.” Lk 23:25 has a similar ambiguity. There is a polemic tendency in the gospels to place the guilt of the crucifixion on the Jewish authorities and to exonerate the Romans from blame. But John later mentions the Roman soldiers (Jn 19:23), and it was to these soldiers that Pilate handed Jesus over.4
George Butterfield notes that we call the Friday on which Jesus was crucified “good.” He asks “What is good about it?”
The apostle John says it is good because on that day he brought secret disciples out of the shadows. One of the major themes in John’s Gospel is that Jesus is the light of the world and to follow him is to live in the day, not the night. In John, chapter 1, he says that the light came into the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it. When darkness and light show up for a fight, it is over immediately. Judas, for example, lived in the darkness. At the last supper, it says that Judas went out (to betray Jesus). Then John adds, “and it was night.” Two other disciples also lived in the darkness - Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were afraid. Nicodemus originally visited Jesus at night (John 3). And Joseph kept his discipleship secret. But you cannot be a secret disciple of Jesus; you cannot follow the light and remain in the darkness. So John says that when Jesus had died, these two shadow disciples came and asked for his body. They outed themselves. Now, everyone knows; they walk in the light.5
Don Schwager quotes “Christ nailed our weakness to the cross, “ by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"As evening drew near, the Lord yielded up His soul upon the cross in the certainty of receiving it back again. It was not wrested from Him against His will. But we too were represented there. Christ had nothing to hang upon the cross except the body He had received from us. And in doing so He nailed our human weakness to the cross." (excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 140,5)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 18:1–19:42 reflects on Jesus bowing his head as he handed over the spirit. (John 19:30).
“It is finished (John 19:30). You have completed your mission: you preached, you healed, and then you willingly drank the ‘cup’ that led to your death (18:11). Now your beaten and marred body will be anointed and laid in a tomb. Jesus, on this solemn day, I grieve for you. With the whole Church, I keep vigil, knowing that in just three days, you will burst from the grave and conquer death forever. And on that glorious day, just as you promised your disciples, my grief will turn to joy (16:20)!” “Jesus, may your cross always remind me of your great love for me.”7
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the unique characteristics of the passage from Isaiah that Jesus applies to himself. The theme of the obedience to God of Jesus as high priest who is tempted without sin resonates in the text from Hebrews. Friar Jude notes that the Divinity of Christ is prominent in the Passion account of John as He remains in control of the events.
Peter Knott SJ, Chaplain to Barlborough Hall School, comments that Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday each has a distinctive 'note.' We have to keep these notes together as one chord.
The joyous truth of Easter is that Christ embraced the many contradictions that sin has brought into our lives. On the cross he died for all of us and for all that has died within us – our many hidden deaths, brought about by our own weakness and the disappointed hopes of a broken world. Those hidden deaths, when they remain alone, lead only to despair. When they become one with Christ’s death they become life itself. Christ, lifted up on the cross, raised to new life, has the power to transform the contradictions of our lives.8
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that by surrendering his life on the cross out of love for all creation, Jesus somehow places himself (and therefore God) in solidarity with all suffering. Black Catholic theologian M. Shawn Copeland challenges those who would follow Jesus to likewise grieve in solidarity with humanity’s suffering through the centuries.
If we, who would be his disciples, recall the night before he died, we are led to a table, from a table to a garden, from a garden to a courtyard, from a courtyard to a hill, from a hill to a grave, from a grave to life. The table holds the self-gift of his very flesh and blood; the garden is watered by his tears and blood; and the cross holds him, even as the One whom he knows and loves lifts him up from the grave to release him into the surprise of hope and life.9
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares a Franciscan perspective on the cross. The common reading of the Bible is that Jesus “died for our sins”—either to pay a debt to the devil (common in the first millennium) or to pay a debt to God (proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109). Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266-1308) agreed with neither of these understandings.
Duns Scotus was not guided by the Temple language of debt, atonement, or blood sacrifice (understandably used by the Gospel writers and by Paul). He was inspired by the cosmic hymns in the first chapters of Colossians and Ephesians and the Prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18) and gave a theological and philosophical base to St. Francis’ deep intuitions of God’s love. While the Church has not rejected the Franciscan position, it has been a minority view. The many “substitutionary atonement theories”—which have dominated the last 800 years of Christianity—suggest that God demanded Jesus to be a blood sacrifice to “atone” for our sin-drenched humanity. The terrible and un-critiqued premise is that God could need payment, and even a very violent transaction, to be able to love and accept God’s own children! These theories are based on retributive justice rather than the restorative justice that the prophets and Jesus taught.10
As we contemplate how the journey of Jesus during these three days connects to our struggles we have gratitude for the Spirit that reveals Divine Love on the Cross.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment