good friday homily

He Cannot Be Bought
The Good Friday Cross.

"It is finished"
John 19:30

The story is told of a man who dreamed that he saw Our Lord tied to a whipping post while a soldier scourged Him unmercifully. He saw the whip in the soldier's hand, its thick cords studded with pieces of lead which cut into the flesh with each blow. As the cruel whip came down on Jesus' back, the horrified dreamer shuddered to see the bloody welts appear. Finally the man could stand it no longer. As the soldier raised his arm and prepared to strike again, the dreamer rushed forward intending to grab the soldier from behind and restrain him. Whereupon, the soldier turned around, and the dreamer recognized himself.

A Good Friday legend tells of an episode in Jesus' childhood:

When Jesus was a boy at Nazareth he met a man named Fidus, who confided this desire: "I am looking for Joseph, the carpenter. From him I want to learn the art of his craft." "I can lead you to him," answered Jesus, "for he is My foster father." As Fidus watched and learned from Joseph, Jesus told him of a great King who would one day be raised upon a throne so high that all the world would see. Fidus exclaimed: "Would that I might build the throne of the great King." "Fidus," said Jesus, "you will be the one to build the throne of the great King, the throne from which He shall rule the nations. I promise you."

Years passed, Fidus went home to Jaffa and practiced his trade with honor. He happened to return to Jerusalem on a day when the city was in an uproar. He could hear cries of: "Crucify Him! He makes himself a King." As he passed the gate of Pilate's palace, a Roman soldier who knew the skill of Fidus greeted him: "You are especially welcome, Fidus. Three are to be crucified today, and only two crosses are prepared." Fidus was assigned the task. He put all his skill into its making, and viewed the finished product with pride. Later he followed the crowd outside the town and up a hill. He heard a voice, a voice he could never forget. Looking closely he saw a figure, a figure he could never forget. Yes, it was the boy from Nazareth, now a man, but writhing in agony on the "throne" Fidus had made. His eyes opened, and he knew what he had done.

I want to suggest that there are two appropriate forms of our response to this King of ours, whose throne is shaped in the form of a cross. The first is for us to admit our responsibility for not only what happened on Good Friday, but what is happening in today's world. The Gospel insist that unless you take this first step, you'll never go any further along the way. Yet, this is exactly where many of us turn off very fast. We have a built-in defense mechanism which begins to blame others for the state we're in. We blame our parents: "They didn't bring us up right." If we happen to be parents, then we blame our children: "Kids these days won't learn to accept responsibility. It's okay to be in love with life and want to reform the world, but you've got to be realistic." Political parties blame each other. Nations blame each other. One group of people blames another group of people. There are always "those others"to blame it on: "It's their fault!"

Some of you may have read about "Gumperson's Law." "Gumperson's Law" explains why everything that can go wrong somehow does. One of the kids always comes down with the mumps the day before you're leaving for vacation. When you're in the city and late for an appointment, every parking place is on the other side of the street going the other way. "Gumperson's Law" explains why your last match can never get the campfire lighted, but that same match can start a forest fire. It explains the forgotten casserole, still in the oven, when the holiday dinner is over.

Now that we've heard about it, we can start blaming "Gumperson's Law" for our ills and the world's ills if we want to. But the New Testament writers say "No!" They are telling us to "repent" instead -- especially on Good Friday. They are telling us to look at ourselves honestly. They are telling us to be honest about the way we've been hurting ourselves, the way we've been hurting other people, the way we've been hurting the world. Only then, they tell us, can we begin to make an appropriate response to God's Love as we stand at the foot of the Cross.

Each year at this time, Judas' betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver reminds us that the "sellout" is not a new phenomenon. Promises broken, loyalties betrayed, principles abandoned -- these are not the inventions of our Age. What is new, however, is contemporary Society's easy acceptance of the "sellout" spirit.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that, in modern society, "People know the price of everything but the value of nothing." Someone else has characterized our time as the "Age of the Sellout," in which "Everything is for sale. Every person has his or her price. Honesty and integrity are traded off, like chattels, for money and power." Although this assessment may be an overstatement, nevertheless it contains more than a grain of truth -- enough truth, in fact, that it should be a matter for our deep concern. Whether it is the "Age of the Sellout" or the "Age of the Fallout" or the "Age of the Blowout," it is our Age. This is the time into which we, as a Christian People, have been called to give light. This is our one-and-only opportunity to be the "salt of the earth."

St. Paul writes, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Let Christ live in you. You may find yourself walking the Way of the Cross more often than the way of Resurrection Glory, but even in the darkest valley you will not be forsaken. Jesus has promised that He will be with you always. He will not abandon you. He will lead you into your eternal fulfillment. You can rely on that absolutely. Jesus is loyal. Jesus keeps his promises. Jesus will never sell us out. We can sell Our Lord; but He cannot be bought.

Once Jesus is on the Cross, Almighty God has done everything He can to prove His love for us, short of taking our freedom away. This He will not do! He honors the gift that He has given us, and when our freedom leads us into sin and despair, He keeps on loving us.

God doesn't withdraw and say, "All right people down there, get your affairs straightened out, and then I'll love you." He doesn't say, "Achieve world peace, rebuild your damaged earth, establish brotherhood, and then I will love you." The sheer wonder of His love we see on the Cross is that God identifies with us in our broken humanity. Right where you are hurting most today, right where you feel fear and anxiety, right where your hopes are burning, right where you need to be confirmed in those hopes, right where you need to be strengthened for action, right at the heart of your real humanity, that's where the Love of God is.

Consider that the "brotherhood" Jesus preached was best understood by those who allowed Him to touch their lives of sin and misery -- to "mourn" with them: the gangsters and the prostitutes; the blind and the crippled; the lonely and the downtrodden. God, in His own time, will bring the New Kingdom to fulfillment and the evils of sin and suffering will be no more. Until that day of final victory and total rejoicing, there will be misery and suffering for all to bear. The Cross is our guarantee that we shall never have to endure the burden alone. Jesus cares! Jesus mourns -- not for us, but with us.

The Good Friday Cross is our ultimate sign of the incredible Good News of God's Love for us. The Good Friday Cross is our ultimate sign of God's fidelity. The Good Friday Cross is our final assurance that God will not abandon us, ever. Through Jesus' death on the Good Friday Cross, God gives us the strength to be at peace when, at last we say, as He did, "It is finished!" (Jn. 19:30). Out of death comes new life. First an ending, then a new beginning. First Good Friday, then Easter morning. First, "It is finished," then blessed, eternal fulfillment, in the hands of a Gracious God!