HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD (1)

HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

HOMILY THEME: AGONY IN GETHSEMANE; HOW GREAT IS YOUR LOVE

BY: Fr Benny Tuazon

HOMILY:

(Jn. 18:1-19:42)
In today’s Gospel, GOOD FRIDAY, the narrative of the passion of the Lord is read in dramatic fashion. It reveals the circumstances present from Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane up to His death and burial. No doubt it was an excruciating, scandalous, and absurd death. Crucifixion is a death only for most hated criminals. The Roman leadership even made a dictum exempting Roman citizens from dying on the cross no matter how bad they were. But God willed that His Son should die on the cross. And Jesus willingly obeyed His Father. No greater love indeed than to lay one’s life for a friend. Jesus considered us as His friends. He died because of our sins. He freed us from our slavery to sin.

We pick up from yesterday’s liturgy when the Lord Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood together with the command to love one another as symbolized by the washing of the feet. God loved us so much that He gave us all the opportunities to change. Man’s track record on keeping promises and taking second chances is bad. But God is consistently patient and understanding. He makes ways and will do everything including offering His only Son for us. God walks His talk. He does not ask of us anything which He Himself had not done. God commanded us to love one another. He showed that love by dying on the cross. Some people may not understand God’s ways. But who are we to question Him? Besides, He did the ultimate so we will believe Him and make us realize how much He loved us.

The story does not end on the cross. At most, it is the beginning of new life, a life with God, a life of eternal bliss. Tomorrow’s celebration will testify to that!