Good Friday (Year B)

(Edited) Reflections (from) Good Friday, April 10, 2009

First reading: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 31
Second reading: Hebrew 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Gospel reading: John 18:1 - 19:42

"Now it is finished."

The gospel passage for Good Friday spans two chapters in the gospel of John. It starts with Jesus and His disciples going across the Kidron valley, and then entering a garden in that area. Moving then to the end of the gospel passage, there is another mention of a garden - in which is found an empty tomb for Jesus to be buried. Between the garden at beginning of this gospel and the garden at the end of the passage, are the events of Christ's passion we know by heart. These events are proclaimed in the gospel of Good Friday's liturgy. The dramatization of the events makes the spirit of the liturgy the most solemn day of all days in the liturgical calendar of the Church. The solemnity and deep reverence which the ceremony produces reminds the mass-goer of that law in the heart which God places in each one.

When the part of the gospel says:

"When Jesus took the wine, He said, "Now it is finished. Then he bowed His head, and delivered over His Spirit",

the whole congregation is requested to kneel down in reverence, with each one silently acknowledging in his heart the great self-sacrificing love God has for each and every one in the world.

Jesus had a very short public life. Traditionally, it is said to be three years (with his death at age thirty-three). But it was a public life fully spent at the service of all humanity - in obedience to His Father's will. In those short years, Jesus had healed so many people - from all sorts of ailments and from demonic possession. He has taught and preached so many times - on top of a mountain, before a very large crowd, and most often during simple meal gatherings. And the miracles and wonders He has performed amazed not only His apostles but whole groups of people. And probably His greatest miracle was the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

After that mission of raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus had incurred the enmity of the Scribes and Pharisees. For the people were flocking more to Him and listening more to His teaching. And so it happened as He had predicted. He was betrayed to the Pharisees. He was arrested, scourged and nailed to a cross. In the crucifixion, when the hour Jesus spoke of was to be fulfilled, Jesus said, "Now it is finished". His mission however had not ended there. It continues to this day in our daily lives. As the we await Him buried in the tomb, to rise again on Easter Sunday, all will know that what He "finished", we continue. We continue to proclaim: For God so loved all of humanity and all of creation, that He gave His only Son Jesus, to die on a cross and rise again, that all may realize the need for the light of His resurrection to guide all humanity and the world now till the end of the age.