Good Friday word, 19 Apr 19

Good Friday (19 Apr 2019)

Is 52. 13-53. 12; Ps 31; Hb 4. 14-16,5.7-9;  Jn 18.1-19.42

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., Holy Week Retreat, Guelph, ON

Disposition Unchanged

Many apply to the Fourth Gospel St Gregory’s image about all scripture: it is like a river…broad and deep, shallow enough here for the lamb to [wade], but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.1 Gregory was keen that scripture offers anyone comfort.2 Those who apply his image to the Fourth Gospel suggest each revisit to it allows one to reacquaint oneself with a self-giving Jesus, a free Jesus or meet Jesus anew and find comfort. Does Jesus’ passion comfort? The number of people who attend only part of its liturgy suggests it does. That during it some locales cease business and others limit activities that might interfere with its solemnity suggest Jesus draws Christians and others of good will.

What may we discover about Jesus, dead and risen, today? Some may answer discovery lay in the Passion of our Lord according to John. I wager people receive more from today’s ancient rituals—its silence, its solemnity, its more generous portion of scripture, its veneration of the cross; its communion. Its homily frees word-weary, information-inebriated, time-tethered people to meet Messiah Jesus in the rituals.

To free us to meet our Messiah I’ll remind us who we know Jesus to be: free; caring; and generously self-giving.

Free: Jesus did not fear death. His silence sang his courage. A cultural historian noted Jesus’ silence signified his Palestinian courage: he “endure[d] physical pain without screeching or crying.… This is exactly how Isaiah describes the Servant of the Lord: ‘he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.’”³ Our aversion to death—not to mention any limitation—does not help us appreciate Jesus’ courage; this reminder does. Jesus freely died as Messiah; it was his self-proclaimed purpose. I lay down my life in order that I may take it back again.⁴

Jesus was caring. He laid down his life so others may live. We heard that those who came to arrest Jesus were powerless before him: When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground. Power did not overshadow his care and concern for his disciples: if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken, “I have not lost a single one of those whom you have given me.” The fulfillment is not only verbal; it indicates Jesus is ever in sync with his Abba: their relationship shapes Jesus’ relationship with us.

Relationship with Jesus prompts us to  consider ourselves: 

• From what does Jesus long to release you and me?
• Do we join Jesus desiring us to find ourselves?
• For what does Jesus desire to free us?

Here Jesus was and is at his most generous. Consider today’s image of thirst and the divine choice to slake it. One who reads the Passion as literature recognizes irony in the image; one who reads it as revelation welcomes God’s selfless compassion.

Thirst is primal and urgent; it alerts one to critical need to stay alive or to live well. From the side of Jesus, who said from the cross, I thirst, blood and water flowed out. In his last visit to the temple before his death Jesus had exclaimed, Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink…of living waters! The gospel recognized flowing from parched Jesus was Holy Spirit not mere H2O.⁵ Who would have imagined the Spirit waters the world by the self-giving of Jesus’ life? It is God’s choice, God’s disposition. It was long ago anticipated.

The Book of Exodus recalled the “incident when the people were thirsty; their grumbling is more serious, since…they turn[ed] the tables on God by testing [God]…; the Lord’s generosity [was] even more dramatic.” How dramatic? Moises Silva keenly detected the Eternal One, “who is the Rock, stands on the rock of Horeb, ready to be struck so that the people may have water to drink.”⁶ Ready to be struck for us! The divine disposition has not changed. Jesus embodied it so we could recognize it and embody it, too. Although it may happen during a brief wade, more likely a deep swim in the Good-Friday river reminds us that by his cross Jesus serves us in each present moment for all time⁷ so we may embody his disposition.

We bring our entire selves to stay near Jesus today so each of us may leave more free, more caring and more generously self-giving. What we thirst and choose to do in the name of Jesus praises God in our names and in the name of all creation.⁸

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1. Letter to Leander, Paragraph 4.
2. Julian Spriggs is one of several commentators who cite St. Gregory’s words.
3. John J. Pilch, A Cultural Handbook to the Bible, Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2012), 158.
4. John 10.17.
5. John 7.37-39.
6. Moises Silva, “Approaching the Fourth Gospel,” Criswell Theological Review 3.1 (1988) 17-29, on p. 28. Accessed 2019-11Mar. Silva referred to Exodus 17.2-7.
7. Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], ##1366-1367.
8. CCC, #1361.

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Wiki-images What Our Lord saw from the cross PD-US; by Sandro von Lorsch Maria und Engel mit totem Jesus vor Golgatha, um 1970 CC BY-SA 4.0.