Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Manhattan
Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion
Good Friday 2023
April 7, 2023
Is 52:13-53:12, Ps 31, Heb 4:14-16.5:7-9, Jn 18:1-19:42
To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- As we come together as a relatively small band of disciples, the particular beauty of today’s Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion is that we have nowhere to hide. We cannot be bystanders or detached spectators. We are almost compelled, like Simon of Cyrene, or the Blessed Mother, John, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the wife of Clopas, to participate actively. To participate actively as we see Jesus, whom Isaiah prophetically described centuries before in today’s first reading, as “marred … beyond human semblance, … spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering … from whom people hide their faces, spurned and … held in no esteem,” bearing our infirmities, enduring our sufferings, “pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, … like a lamb led to the slaughter, … silent, … oppressed and condemned, … cut off from the land of the living, smitten for the sin of his people.” To participate actively when, as we heard in the Letter to the Hebrews, “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death.” To participate actively when various leaders of the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Sanhedrin, together with the cooperation of Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas and sadistic Roman Soldiers, got their way, when Jesus’ words to the apostles, that he would be “handed over to the Chief Priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified” (Mt 20:17) were fulfilled.
- If we are going to enter interiorly into the Lord’s passion, if we are going to become deeply conscious of the way each of us is implicated in what Christ suffered and why (Jn 10:18), then one of the ways is to take personally the questions that are asked throughout the Passion narrative we just heard. These questions bring us into the heart of what is happening and are meant to influence the way we prayerfully unite ourselves to Jesus not only on Good Friday but throughout our life.
- We can examine five different questions today.
- The first is, “Whom are you looking for?” This query, made by Jesus of the soldiers accompanying Judas to arrest him, reminds us of the question he first asked of John and Andrew after Jesus passed John the Baptist at the Jordan and John pointed Jesus out as the Lamb of God. John and Andrew began ineffectively to tail Jesus, but Jesus, sensing their presence, turned around and asked, “What are you looking for?” They stammered to ask where he was staying and Jesus replied, “Come and you will see.” (Jn 1:37-8). Jesus asks us today, like he asked the future apostles, like he asked the guards, whom and what we’re seeking and why. He wants to have us follow him to see not only where he dwells on Good Friday but what is behind the vestibule of Golgotha. But we need to examine our desires and motivations: What are we really looking for with Jesus? So many during Jesus’ time were looking for a political messiah to kick out the Romans, which Jesus was not. Others were seeking someone to cure their illnesses, heal their infirmities, expel their demons, but Jesus’ mission was far greater than that. Others were coming to him because they had eaten their fill of the loaves and wanted another free meal. Others were convening to hear him preach, because he taught with an authority and freshness they couldn’t find among their rabbis, scribes or Pharisees. Others were coming to him in desperation as a last resort when all of their other interventions, human efforts and even prayers failed. Across the centuries, many have had a wide variety of reasons to follow Jesus. Jesus asks today: Why are we here? What are we looking for? Whom do we seek? During his public ministry, Jesus warned the crowds that to follow him meant to prefer him over family, property, even life itself. He reminded them that he had nowhere to lay his head. He said that to be his disciple required denying themselves, picking up cross each day and following him. Today we behold him, with his “sacred head surrounded by crown of piercing thorn,” and ask: Are we seeking the real Jesus or some other less threatening phantasm?
- The second query is, “Can you keep watch with me for an hour?” Jesus asks this question of his three closest apostles, the three who were with him at the Transfiguration, the three who accompanied him to raise the daughter of Jairus from the dead, the three whom he asked to accompany him in prayer as he began to sweat blood in the Garden. He had urged Peter, James and John to stay awake and pray so that they might not undergo and flunk the test of fidelity, because the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. Even though they clearly loved the Lord Jesus, even though they were genuinely willing to die for him, they were at the time too feeble. Their bodies betrayed them, not just the desire for a little shuteye in Gethsemane but for self-preservation a little time later. About this plea for them and us to keep watch with him, our recently deceased Pope Benedict preached in 2012 that Jesus “does not want to be left alone. … He wants at least three disciples to be near him, to be in a closer relationship with him. This is a spatial closeness, a plea for solidarity at the moment in which he feels death approaching, but above all it is closeness in prayer, in a certain way to express harmony with him at the moment when he is preparing to do the Father’s will to the very end; and it is an invitation to every disciple to follow him on the Way of Cross.” Pope Benedict continued, “The Gospel accounts of Gethsemane regretfully show that the three disciples, chosen by Jesus to be close to him, were unable to watch with him, sharing in his prayer, in his adherence to the Father and they were overcome by sleep.” And then he prayed, “Let us ask the Lord to enable us to keep watch with him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day even if he speaks of the Cross, to live in ever greater intimacy with the Lord.” Just like Jesus wanted their spatial closeness and solidarity, their sharing in his prayer and adherence to the Father, so he wants ours. Today we’ve made the time to come to be with him, and he’s doubtless grateful. But can we make the time each day to keep watch with Christ in prayer? Can he who gave us life, every nanosecond of every day, count on our consecrating that gift and growing in friendship, in love, with him? Our flesh is weak, too, and for us to be faithful, our spiritual weight room — not just on Good Friday but each day — is prayer. As we behold him on the Cross for us and our salvation, will we make the commitment to spend time with him in prayer each day, as the first fruits, as a fitting tithe, of each day he gives us? If he specified an hour, can we make that space for God and give him a holy hour?
- The first two questions come to a head in the third, “You are not that man’s disciple, are you?,” made by the servant in the high priest’s courtyard of St. Peter. This question helps us not only to recognize the importance of having a strengthened flesh but also to see the concrete decision we need to make for Jesus. It’s somewhat easy for us at a notional level to say that we’re disciples, but what will we say when the going gets tough, when we may have to suffer for the faith, when we may need to lose family members, friends, romantic interests, livelihood, or life? There are some shocking words at the end of today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. The sacred author tells us that Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who,” not believe in him, but “obey ” Salvation is offered to those who prove to be disciples, who put Jesus’ words into practice. Faith must lead to action. In 2019, a powerful, award-winning movie called A Hidden Life was made about the martyr Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, who was killed by the Nazis in 1943. There is a scene in which Franz is conversing with an artist in the village Church where Franz was a volunteer sacristan. The artist was painting a beautiful image of Jesus but he said that he really longed to be able to paint one not of a handsome Jesus, but of the real Jesus on Calvary, body torn apart, blood pouring down his face and from his wounds, a true icon of Isaiah’s words today, that there was nothing in his “appearance that would attract us to him.” He said that he wanted to portray the real Christ because Christ has many “admirers” but few “followers.” This was during the time of the Nazi takeover of Austria, when many Christians who “admired” Jesus were capitulating to the National Socialists. Franz Jagerstatter proved to be a true follower when he remained faithful to his conscience all the way until the Nazis beheaded him. He remained faithful despite his soft parish priest and soft bishop trying to persuade him to take a Nazi oath falsely just to save his life in this world. The question for us is: Do we do more than merely admire the Lord. Are we really Jesus’ disciple? Do we follow him? Are we prepared, as he summoned us to do, to lose our life to save it? To go the way of the grain of wheat? To be crucified with him? To be a Christian disciple means to do more than wear a Crucifix or kiss one on Good Friday, as we will solemnly do a little later. To be a Christian means to be a Simon of Cyrene and help Jesus carry his Cross. It means to relive in our own life the Second Station and take up our own Cross and allow Jesus to be Simon to us. It means ultimately to yoke ourselves, as body to head, as bride to Bridegroom, to Jesus on the Cross. Is that what we intend?
- The fourth question is Jesus’ query to Pontius Pilate, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?,” after Pilate asked Jesus whether he was a king. This question brings up whether we really know Jesus or simply know about him from others, whether parents, grandparents, Popes, priests, religious, friends, youtube videos, podcasts or other means. There are some things we cannot borrow. One is faith. Another is friendship. Jesus wants us to take personal responsibility for our relationship with him, for asking the tougher questions if necessary and in response to his questions, making the existential responses. He wants our “I” in the “I believe” we profess in the Creed. The context of Jesus’ question was about the Kingdom he had come to inaugurate, and so we can ask: Do we believe that Jesus before Pilate is a king about to enter into his reign? When we look at him, do we behold our leader whom we seek to serve? Do we want to enter into his kingdom, recognizing that his kingdom is not of this world, and that the greats of his kingdom wash others’ feet, become servants of the rest, drink the chalice of his suffering, are poor in spirit, trust in him like little children, obey him with love and teach others to do the same? Is our faith based on a trust and commitment to Jesus, and because of that trust, in what he teaches and promises, or is it second-hand, or something that we follow because others follow? Have we owned our faith with mature responsibility?
- The last question we’ll ponder is Pilate’s, “Whom do you want me to release to you?” The choice between Jesus and Barabbas is at the surface an easy one for anyone perhaps except for Barabbas’ mother. None of us would choose Barabbas directly. But Barabbas is the most disguised figure in human history. He takes on the appearance of anyone opposed to Jesus. He takes on the appearance of various politicians, celebrities, influencers, teachers, coaches, bosses, drug pushers, attractive porn models, and sometimes, sadly, even best friends, boyfriends or girlfriends, spouses and family members. We choose Barabbas any time we choose anyone over Jesus. We choose Barabbas any time we choose sin over sanctity, greed over generosity, cheating over integrity, revenge over forgiveness, lying over honesty, arrogance over humility, lust over love, idolatry over faith. As Archbishop Sheen wrote in his meditations on the Way of the Cross that we prayed earlier today: “As often as I choose to speak the uncharitable word, do the dishonest action, or consent to the evil thought, I say in so many words, ‘Release unto me Barabbas.’ And to choose Barabbas means to crucify Christ.”
- All five of these questions are really variations on the same theme: Who really is Jesus Christ and do I believe in him enough to follow him, as he asks, all the way, with faith, hope and love, with all my mind, heart, soul and strength? As we see today, the narrow road to life that we call the Via Crucis is difficult. It can be occasionally excruciating to seek first Jesus and his kingdom, to defend and profess him under pressure, to make the daily loving commitment to spend substantial time with him, to grow in our personal friendship with him, and to choose him over everyone and everything. It requires faith and perseverance — and a lot of divine help. But that’s what the Letter to the Hebrews promises us today. The sacred author tells us, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” Today on Good Friday from Calvary, and eternally from the throne of grace in heaven, Jesus understands our weaknesses and is interceding for us, to give us the help we need in every circumstance, so that we always and everywhere we might seek him, keep watch with him, courageously live as his disciples, develop a deep friendship with him that helps others to come to know him, and choose him over every Barabbas, no matter how tempting. Jesus’ help is our great hope.
- We finish today with words we will sing a little later. They’re always been for me the most moving lyrics of all Lenten hymns. They speak about the personal love Jesus poured out today for each of us and what the only fitting response must be. As we behold Jesus on the Cross, the happiest person who has ever lived at the moment of his supreme triumph, the one we seek, our King to whom we pray and for whom we are proud to be disciples, we ask his timely help to live this confession: “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
The readings for today’s Commemoration were:
Reading I
See, my servant shall prosper,
he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.
Even as many were amazed at him —
so marred was his look beyond human semblance
and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man–
so shall he startle many nations,
because of him kings shall stand speechless;
for those who have not been told shall see,
those who have not heard shall ponder it.
Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
each following his own way;
but the LORD laid upon him
the guilt of us all.
Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,
a grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers,
though he had done no wrong
nor spoken any falsehood.
But the LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction
he shall see the light in fullness of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty,
because he surrendered himself to death
and was counted among the wicked;
and he shall take away the sins of many,
and win pardon for their offenses.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (Lk 23:46) Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
But my trust is in you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my God.
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.”
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your kindness.
Take courage and be stouthearted,
all you who hope in the LORD.
R. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Reading II
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
In the days when Christ was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Verse Before the Gospel
Christ became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.
Gospel
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley
to where there was a garden,
into which he and his disciples entered.
Judas his betrayer also knew the place,
because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards
from the chief priests and the Pharisees
and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,
went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”
They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
He said to them, “I AM.”
Judas his betrayer was also with them.
When he said to them, “I AM, “
they turned away and fell to the ground.
So he again asked them,
“Whom are you looking for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
Jesus answered,
“I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”
This was to fulfill what he had said,
“I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,
struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.
The slave’s name was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter,
“Put your sword into its scabbard.
Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”
So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,
bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews
that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,
and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate outside.
So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest,
went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,
“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.”
Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire
that they had made, because it was cold,
and were warming themselves.
Peter was also standing there keeping warm.
The high priest questioned Jesus
about his disciples and about his doctrine.
Jesus answered him,
“I have spoken publicly to the world.
I have always taught in a synagogue
or in the temple area where all the Jews gather,
and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me?
Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
They know what I said.”
When he had said this,
one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said,
“Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
Jesus answered him,
“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;
but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.
And they said to him,
“You are not one of his disciples, are you?”
He denied it and said,
“I am not.”
One of the slaves of the high priest,
a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
“Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
Again Peter denied it.
And immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.
It was morning.
And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,
in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said,
“What charge do you bring against this man?”
They answered and said to him,
“If he were not a criminal,
we would not have handed him over to you.”
At this, Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”
The Jews answered him,
“We do not have the right to execute anyone,“
in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the praetorium
and summoned Jesus and said to him,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered,
“Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus answered,
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him,
“Then you are a king?”
Jesus answered,
“You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
When he had said this,
he again went out to the Jews and said to them,
“I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.
Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out again,
“Not this one but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
and clothed him in a purple cloak,
and they came to him and said,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
“Look, I am bringing him out to you,
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
So Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
“Crucify him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him.
I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews answered,
“We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.”
Now when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more afraid,
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
“Where are you from?”
Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him,
“Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you
and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him,
“You would have no power over me
if it had not been given to you from above.
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin.”
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
“If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out
and seated him on the judge’s bench
in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said to the Jews,
“Behold, your king!”
They cried out,
“Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests answered,
“We have no king but Caesar.”
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,
he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him, and with him two others,
one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
It read,
“Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
“Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
Pilate answered,
“What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
a share for each soldier.
They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top down.
So they said to one another,
“Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
They divided my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
“It is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and that they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
They will look upon him whom they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download