Homily for Good Friday, 2009

Good Friday
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
April 10, 2009

Jesus’ final words on the cross before he died were, “It is finished.” He is the Son of God whose life purpose is to accompany his human family. He was a poor man who shared all the struggles that are part of poverty. He worked hard with his hands as a carpenter to help support his mother and his extended family. He knew what it is like to live under the oppression of empire. Jesus died as a condemned criminal. He had finished a most difficult journey. “It is finished.”

The Jesus we encounter in the gospels deeply experienced every shade of human emotion. We see this especially during his final days before his death. There was the emotional farewell to his disciples as the Last Supper. Then in the garden before his arrest, he longed for the company of his closest friends because he was suffering agony in anticipation of his cruel, shameful and painful death. He asked his sleeping friends, “Could you not stay awake with me for a little while?” It was the complaint of a lonely, terrified man. Jesus experienced terror, sorrow, loneliness, desperation and death to share the cries and pain of this broken world that he loves so much. In Jesus we encounter the Compassion of God.

The first utterance that Jesus made at his birth was an infant’s cry – to be held, to be fed, to be loved. His last word was a dying man’s cry, “It is finished.” A cry made in loneliness and pain to join in the passion and death of the crucified people of the earth.

Why? Because he is God, the Compassionate One, who wishes to share our burdens. Because he is God who is Love, and is very passionate about his relationship with us.