Good Friday – B 

Good Friday evokes many emotions among different people.

For some, Good Friday inspires a fascination with the brutality of the death Jesus endured. Their focus is on the physical pain of scourging, being nailed to a cross, suffering death by asphyxiation.

For others, Good Friday can elicit a healthy portion of guilt and shame. Jesus, the innocent victim, dies as a victim for the sins of us all. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, it was our infirmities He bore, our sufferings He endured.

For still others, there is a temptation to rush in where angels fear to tread, to attempt to explain the riches and the depths and the marvels of God's love for us in a way that no author of any book of scripture or any other spiritual writer has ever done before.

I would suggest an alternative way of observing this great and holy day, this Good Friday. Today, I would suggest that we join Mary and the disciple Jesus loved, as they stood at the foot of the Cross, and remained there, as witnesses to love .

The invitation to be witnesses to love was given to many on that first Good Friday. The vast majority of Jesus' followers and friends declined the invitation and fled out of fear when He was arrested and began His final suffering and travail.

Pontius Pilate was given an invitation to be a witness to love , but his preoccupation with his own self-interest and his own indifference led him to decline an invitation that even his own wife seemed to be encouraging him to accept.

The chief priests and the leaders of the people had been given the invitation to be witnesses to love over and over again throughout the time of Jesus' public ministry, in a way that would suggest that God was almost begging them to accept His invitation, but pride and self-righteousness prevented them from saying “yes” to Jesus.

So in the end, there were Mary and the disciple Jesus loved, remaining with Him in His moments of agony and till the time of His death, remaining with Him as witnesses to love .

If there is a pinnacle to the season of Lent, it would have to be our remembrance of the suffering and death of Jesus on Good Friday. Our prayer, our fasting, our almsgiving for the past forty days have been the means that have hopefully disposed us to be both more attentive and more appreciative witnesses to love on this Good Friday.

Tonight's liturgy invites us to be witnesses to love . Our liturgy of the Word, in the beautiful words of the prophet Isaiah, the letter to the Hebrews, and the Passion narrative all put before us the marvels and the depths of God's love for us.

The Veneration of the Cross, which we will soon share in, each year gives us the opportunity to express our love for the Cross, but perhaps even more importantly it gives us the opportunity to be witnesses to the love which fills the hearts of so many of our brothers and sisters who approach and reverence this sign of our salvation.

And our sharing in Holy Communion tonight reminds us that we can be witnesses to love every time we approach the sacrament of the Body of Christ and recognize His presence in that sacred species and also in the community of the Church which that sacrament forms as His living and enduring presence in the world today.

Mary and the disciple Jesus loved were witnesses to Love from the moment the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. They were witnesses to Love in the good times of His life and in the times when he was broken and rejected. They saw Him reveal the glory of His heavenly Father, and they saw Him reviled and disfigured and accustomed to infirmity.

We too see signs around us each day of the glory of God so evident and so obvious in our midst. We also see love struggling to break through the weakness, the sin, the infirmity that burdens us all.

We can never repay the debt that was paid by Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. But if there is one thing we can do to show our gratitude for what He has done for us, may it be our desire to be faithful and to be eager each day to imitate His Mother and the disciple whom He loved. May we always express our desire to show our gratitude to God by accepting the invitation to be witnesses to Love .

Thomas P. Ferguson
April 14, 2006