GOOD FRIDAY-2023

C.S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. 

Thomas Merton said "Why should anyone be shattered by the thought of hell? It is not compulsory for anyone to go there. Those who do do so by their own choice and against God's will and can only get into hell by defying and resisting all the work of Providence and grace. It is their own will that takes them there, not God’s. In damning them, He is only ratifying their own decision – a decision which He has left entirely to their own choice. Nor will He ever hold our weakness alone responsible for our damnation. Our weakness should not terrify us: it is the source of our strength, Power is made perfect in weakness, and our very helplessness is all the more potent a claim on that Divine Mercy Who calls to Himself the poor, the little ones, the heavily burdened.”

St. Catherine of Siena said, “If we were not free, we would have an excuse for sin. But we can have no excuse because there is nothing, neither the world nor the devil, nor our own flesh, that can force us to any sin at all against our will…What is this thing that is ours, given us by God, that neither the devil nor anyone else can take from us? It is our will. Certainly then, we can be secure and fearless.” 

Was Pilate responsible for Jesus’ death? Was he not free to liberate Jesus? He declared Jesus’ innocence a couple of time saying, I find no guilt in him. Why did he get Jesus then flogged if he was innocent?

 Pilate was not all good nor all bad; his greatest sin was self-preservation and not defending his conscience. Elected to be a steward of the people, Pilate was forced to do something he didn’t believe in because that’s what the people wanted. Wasn’t that the whole point of democracy after all, to do what the people want? Wasn’t he just doing his job? Right to the end, we see Pilate trying to appease his own conscience, eg when he washes his hands and when he writes ‘King of the Jews’ on Jesus’ plaque and defies the crowd who demand that he change the wording. Pilate must have realized that a great injustice had happened on his watch, and he sensed his role in it. His own wife had cautioned him against condemning Jesus to death. But he was one man against a mob, and there was so much on the line for him. The emotional conflict must have been impossible to bear. Faced with the angry mob outside the praetorium, Pilate chose to save his own life. What would we have chosen if we were in his shoes? Would we have strongly defended the innocent using our free will?

How many times have we yielded or compromised to situations we knew for sure we were wrong? Rather than being sorry for the suffering of Christ today, which he chose upon himself as the will of the Father for him, or being angry over those who condemned him, let’s mourn for our own failure in not acting in accordance to our conscience and failing to do the good we are called to do.