Answering the Questions of the Passion, Good Friday, April 7, 2023

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: 

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