On that day
The sins of the world,
Was in the form of whips
Had the severity of Gagultha
It was the tone of shouts.
It was the weight of the cross.
The sharpness of piercing nails
The pain of piercing thorn
But He was there to
accept everything without complaint. He was silent like a lamb led to the
slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers. A Good Friday commemoration takes
place, renewing the memory of Christ offering himself to be the sacrificial
object for the atonement of mankind.
Every sadness has a face of love and patience. John the disciple
testifies that God is love. This is the testimony of John who experienced
Jesus. We are taught about the depth of God's love and care through the
parables of the shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep and the prodigal
son. Jesus, who teaches to love unconditionally, taught that there is no
greater love than laying down one's life for a loved one and showed it through
his own life.
He himself is offered as a sacrificial offering to atone for
the sins of mankind. It is in this sacrifice on the cross that we find the
culmination of God's love. Many of us have experienced the apparent conflict
between love and suffering. When we go through the green realities of life, the
conflict between love and suffering is evident. We highlight sorrow and
suffering as proof that God does not love. Sorrows and miseries in life become
the yardsticks for measuring God's love. It is necessary to understand life
experiences with the basic principle that God is love.
Are our Good Friday observances merely an occasion to renew
the memory of those who died on the cross and to show our sympathy? Or does
this observance of Good Friday provide an opportunity for a transformation in
my life? As long as we do not read the experiences of life in the light of
God's love, suffering will raise the barbarity in us. The cross proves that
there is no conflict between love and suffering. Suffering is inevitable for
those who follow Jesus Christ. We should be ready to face the hardships of life
with confidence.
Does remembering Jesus' suffering and death on the cross help
me come to terms with the suffering in my life? Seeing the suffering, cross and
death of Jesus as part of a divine plan, I should be able to understand the
sufferings in life as part of a plan that God has prepared for me. I should be
able to accept the sufferings that happen in my life knowing that it is God's
will. Sufferings of many kinds - separation of loved ones, unexpected
illnesses, rejections, financial difficulties, and so on and so forth creep
into our lives... My God, do you leave me alone in my sorrows? When that
happens, there will be an urge to doubt God's love and care.
On this occasion, what comes to my mind is a Jesus youth activist named Anjana George from Thevara
Kochi, who was diagnosed with cancer two or three years ago and was taken to
the presence of God. A person who walked with many dreams and started working
as a college teacher in the same college where she studied as a college
teacher, who ran for Jesus. One morning the knowledge that she had cancer
overwhelmed her. But coming to terms with her sufferings, the realization that
this was part of God's plan strengthened her faith. Power is stored in the
depths of Jesus' divine mercy. As the sky of divine mercy. After enduring five
years of suffering, he happily passed into God's presence. Anjana's way of life
teaches us that we can take on the sufferings in life with confidence by
relying on God.
Suffering prepares us for a change of faith, strengthening
family ties, sanctification and renewal of life. Suffering provides an
opportunity to share in the sufferings of Jesus through our sufferings, to
declare solidarity with those who suffer, and to be reconciled. By cooperating
with God's plan, we gain the strength to overcome suffering when we face it. It
is in the sacrifice of the cross that the God-man, broken by sin, establishes
the relationship with God. That co-sacrifice offered through the ultimate
sacrifice on the cross, offering itself as the sacrificial and oblation in
place of the Passover lamb offered for their atonement, has salvific value. He
offered the only eternal sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Our sufferings take
on a salvific value when we relate our personal sufferings to Jesus' sacrifice
on the cross.
In 1956, a young nun named Sister Nobert, who took her first
vows in the FCC community, accidentally slipped while cleaning the altar and
fell to the bed. She started her monastic life with a lot of hopes and it was
the beginning of a life of suffering. For 50 long years she lived her monastic
life in a wheelchair and became the praying mother of Sister Marathakkara who
sought refuge in the divine mercy of Jesus. For many it became an experience of
healing when one's own sufferings and the sufferings of others were added to
the sufferings of the Lord on the cross. To forget his own pains and meanings
and spread love, happiness and prayers.
We should be able to strengthen our personal relationship
with Jesus. The conviction that I am a redeemed person in the holy body of
Jesus, which was thought of in Calvary's burnt offering, should strengthen my
personal relationship with Jesus. He was wounded for our transgressions. His
punishment saved us. By his wounds we are healed. This realization will
strengthen the relationship with Jesus and I must realize that the body broken
and blood shed are signs of unconditional love and sharing for me on every
occasion of participating mysteriously in the supreme sacrifice of Calvary.
Jesus showed the depth of his love for me on the cross.
On October 10, 1982, Father Maximillian Kolbe was canonized
by Pope John Paul II as a Martyr of Charity. A Polish man named Francisk
Gayonysak, who was participating in that ceremony, was crying loudly and
saying, "My life is the gift of this man." Much of his life after
World War II was devoted to Father Maximillian Kolbe. This man used to say that
I owe it to myself to speak about Father Maximillian Kolbe till the last breath
of my life. It is no exaggeration to say that it influenced his life.
Life renewal and life sanctification is the first step in
Jesus becoming an experience for the person who strengthens his personal
relationship with Jesus. Our fifty days Lent observance began with a desire to
recognize our condition in life and walk into the presence of the Father. A prodigal
away from his loving father, the son's self-consciousness from his weakest
state made him walk back to his father. Does this Good Friday observance bring
me to a similar realization? Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. We are
members of the body of Christ. Peter, who had denied the Master, loved him more
strongly when he realized it. Saul, who came down to persecute his church, was
made a brave soldier by imparting the experience that I am the one who is the “persecuted
Jesus”. “He is crucified with Christ. He grew to realize that it is no longer I
but Christ who lives in me. "My present life is a life of faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
George, who gained notoriety in the 1980 KarikanVilla murder
case, became a reformed person when he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.
Released from prison in 1992, Renee is part of the Prison Fellowship, which
works for the rehabilitation of prisoners and their children. Together with his
wife Tina and daughter, he runs a movement called Precious Children's Home,
which protects the children of prisoners. A person who accepts Jesus as Savior
and Lord must be stripped of the old man contaminated by sin and become a new
person renewed in Christ. Be ye renewed in spirit, and put on the new man,
created in the likeness of God in true holiness and righteousness (Ep4/23-24).
A person who accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour must be ready
to adopt the lifestyle of Christ's disciple. Be prepared to take up the cross.
He can pray as Jesus prayed, to love as Jesus loved and to minister as Jesus
ministered. It is an expression of concern for others of a nullification. A
life that sees their goodness without being self-centred. Jesus' instruction to
go the distance of two peacocks with him who compels him to go the same
distance with him highlights all his teachings. "Walking Extra
Peacock" is a lifestyle. It should be possible to adopt this lifestyle. To
overcome evil with good, to heartily forgive those who do wrong,... Jesus says
that whoever follows me, let him take up my cross and follow me as he teaches
that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend.
Amen in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, praying that the memory of Jesus' suffering and death on the cross will
sound the trumpet of renewal in each of our lives.
