GOOD FRIDAY

A man was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. His family watched in pain as he lost different aspects of his memory. First, he began forgetting ordinary things like how to turn on the shower or to use a toaster. Soon he could no longer remember people who were his old friends or close work associates. Then he began to forget even who his children were and finally his wife. As the man’s life was drawing to an end, his family gathered around the sick bed. He knew none of them. His wife placed a small crucifix in his hand. At first he seemed puzzled, then looked intently and said, “Jesus.” The man was Ronald Regan the former president of the Unites States.
“We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24).
The crucifix and the cross are the symbols of the loving and sacrificial offering of self for others. It is only in the cross that we see the face of God. We look at the sun and see the energy of God. We look at the stars and see the infinity of God. We look at the atom and see the complexity of God. But it is only in the cross that we see the face of God’s love. It is only in the cross that we see a love so great that God was willing to die for me. It is only in the cross that we hear the statement, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15: 13), and the cross states all this.

Whenever we see the cross, we should realize that he was bruised, was crushed and died for our iniquities. Is 53:5, “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.”
The cross is the symbol of the risen Christ who promises us a crown of glory as a reward for our patient bearing of our daily crosses.
The Monk Thomas Merton talks about the Cross and Suffering:
“The Christian must not only accept suffering: the Christian must make it holy. Nothing so easily becomes unholy as suffering. Merely accepted, suffering does nothing for our souls except perhaps to harden them. Endurance alone is no consecration. We can deny ourselves rigorously for the wrong reason and end up by pleasing ourselves mightily with our self-denial…..Suffering, therefore, can only be consecrated to God by one who believes that Jesus is not dead. And it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.”
Because Christ's cross is the price of our redemption, we must treasure this gift unceasingly throughout life. Joy and gratitude to God for the work of the cross must be the bedrock of any Christian spirituality. At the same time, Christ calls us to apply the power of the cross in our lives so that we may truly "take up our cross and follow him." As St. Paul teaches so clearly in Romans 6, taking up the cross in our lives can only happen if we daily reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
As we come forward to kiss the cross of Christ, we are proclaiming that we love the cross of Christ, because on this cross he saved us and we also proclaim that we love our own crosses because our daily crosses are also made holy by the cross of Christ.

Let’s thank Jesus, our crucified God for being crucified outside the walls, for being expelled and excluded like the sinners and outcasts, so that he can meet us where we feel that we are, always outside the walls of worthiness.