Good Friday
St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Is 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
2 Apr 2010
We find a perfect symmetry between the life of Jesus Our Lord and his teachings; every aspect of his life and dying with all of his teachings, the most demanding as well as the most morally elegant or those which are popular. Jesus' passion and resurrection perfectly match the teachings of the beatitudes.
No such standards of perfection are required of Christ's followers, who are certainly called to conversion and repentance, to basic sincerity and goodness. But not even hostile observers expect Christians to be perfect.
The Church acknowledges our weakness in every celebration of Mass, where we ask God "to look not on our sins, but on the faith of the Church", while the ancient Roman Canon, or first Eucharistic prayer has these words:
"Though we are sinners we trust in your mercy and love. Do not consider what we truly deserve but grant us your forgiveness".
Jesus lived by different and higher standards. He has also proved to be the most effective teacher in all human history; and, with the parables, his beatitudes represent one high point of this teaching.
In these days of Holy Week as we approach the triumph of Easter Sunday, we meditate on Christ's suffering and death and I believe that Christ's last days embody perfectly the last beatitude listed by Matthew: "Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".
We do not like seeing or hearing of people being persecuted. Even when they are crooks their regular ill-treatment can provoke some measure of our sympathy. On top of this we have the customary provocation of the beatitudes where those unfortunates are described as blessed and promised membership of the kingdom of heaven after their persecution.
Our Lord meets all the criteria of this beatitude as he was the embodiment of righteousness; even his opponents in their hatred could not convict him of sin.
Sometimes individuals are persecuted for their own sins and faults and might even deserve a good portion of what they receive. But Jesus was totally undeserving of any ill-treatment, being like an innocent child, symbolised by the spotless lamb, who takes away all our sins. Christ truly was like a sheep among wolves.
Suicide bombers, terrorists who kill and injure innocent citizens, are rightly pursued and persecuted, but they are not blessed and rewarded for their killing in God's eyes.
I suppose it could be possible to die for Christ or the Catholic faith with a heart full of hate. It seems unlikely to me, but life reveals many oddities.
Jesus was at the other end of the spectrum because he died forgiving his assailants as those who did not know what they were doing. He even promised entry into heaven on that very day to Dismas, the good thief, who acknowledged his wrong-doing and was kind to Jesus.
Neither was Jesus a hothead, who foolishly provoked the authorities, nor a proud and fierce stoic, who publicly and privately despised his enemies.
A good cause, grace and humility are needed for a Christian martyrdom. Jesus did not want to be a public hero. Obeying the will of his Father was his duty and first concern, but he asked for this chalice of suffering to pass him by, if that was his Father's will. He emptied himself in humble submission to God's will to obtain the forgiveness of our sins.
We are all followers of Jesus, united in our common faith, even though we have not followed Him in perfection. But our lives too are supposed to reflect our Christian convictions in deeds, not simply in words.
This is one reason why the kissing of the Cross is one of the most loved gestures in the Christian liturgy. My memories of the Easter ceremonies, before the post-Conciliar reforms, when I was a youngster growing up, are vague and imprecise for me, although I certainly attended in every Holy Week. But I clearly remember the kissing of the Cross.
I strongly urge you to make this public gesture, which is open to absolutely everyone, believers and unbelievers, saints and sinners, young and old. I suspect you need no urging and are only too eager to make this profession of faith. We declare ourselves as standing for goodness not evil, light not darkness, the one true God and not the abyss, the darkness of atheism by coming forward to kiss the Cross.
Later in the prayers we shall pray for those who decided not to believe in God. Our type of western civilization is unusual in historical terms, where a small but increasing minority refuse to be theists, to believe in God. It is good to pray for these deniers and doubters and to ponder why our country and age is so unusual in its minority of unbelievers. In almost every other age and nation those who did not believe in God or gods was much smaller.
Christ's death is not the end of the story as we always discover on Easter Sunday. Because of that, in faith, we can continue to proclaim "Ave Crux, Spes Unica". Hail to the Cross, our only hope.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
