Good Friday

Holy Week Homilies by Abbot Paul Stonham 2006

Good Friday 2006

"Let us be confident, then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help." With these words of encouragement and hope the Letter to the Hebrews invites us today to look upon Christ Crucified with confidence, asking him for every grace and blessing we need. In the Good Friday Liturgy we do just that. In the Intercessions, which follow the homily, we pray for all mankind and then we venerate the Cross and, on it, the image of the Saviour, the Lamb of God.

That word confidence is so important. How many of us are afraid of God or embarrassed by him and keep him at a distance? It's so easy to become a lapsed Catholic, even when you keep coming to Mass, keep saying your prayers, keeping up appearances, as it were. I know this from my own experience.

One of the many interesting things about the Gospels, and particularly St John, is how close Jesus comes to people. They can't but enter into a personal relationship with him. Think of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well or of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. We know that through his Incarnation he has broken down, destroyed, the barrier, the division, between God and Man, for in Christ we find both natures in the One Person: he is true God and true Man. "To have seen me is to have seen the Father." Let us take a closer look at this in St John's Passion.

Pontius Pilate plays a particularly important role in this Gospel. In many ways he is a tragic figure, finding Jesus innocent and wishing to release him, yet frightened of the mob and scared of losing his job. Instead of listening to his conscience he acquiesces to the demands of the crowd, "Crucify him. Crucify him." He knows what is right and does what is wrong. Like most of us he is a coward and his only excuse, that limp and empty question, "Truth? What is that?" Yet, when all is lost, he still has courage to say, "What I have written, I have written." With that imperial inscription in three languages, "The King of the Jews" he finally acknowledges the truth about Jesus. No matter how dark the night, there is always a speck of light. In every lie there is an element of truth.

How many world leaders profess to being Christian (or members of another faith, for that matter) and yet govern and legislate in a totally unchristian or irreligious way, not wishing to offend the vociferous majority by mixing religion or ethics with politics. Unfortunately, Pilate is alive and well in the world today

In St John the women who follow Jesus to Golgotha stay close to him and not at a distance as in the Synoptics. It is interesting to see how his Aunt Mary and Mary of Magdala are mentioned by name but not his mother or even the beloved disciple. "Woman, this is your son. This is your mother." Here we have a different aspect of the new Israel, the Church, constituted in the new Exodus of the Passion, Death and resurrection of Jesus. At the Last Supper it was the Twelve, but now at Golgotha we meet his mother and disciple Jesus loved. Jesus brings them into a mother-son relationship and thus constitutes a Church which is a community of disciples, those who hear the word of God and keep it. "If you love me, keep my commandments."

It will be the beloved disciple who discovers the empty tomb and Mary Madgalene, the Apostle of the apostles, the first to see the risen Lord, the Apostle of the apostles. The Church is not only priestly and hierarchic. It is also a community of believers who love each other, of brothers and sisters, Christ's family, God's children.

Finally, when bowing his head he gives up the spirit, we meet another group of followers, of those who make up the Church of Christ. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea embrace the body of the dead Christ and prepare it meticulously for burial, laying it to rest in a new tomb in a garden. We are reminded of that garden where it all began, the Garden of Eden. "Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies it remains a single grain…" Now we are all caught up in the new creation and are part of the new beginning, a new heaven and a new earth.

Christ invites us all to come to him with confidence. We can become his mother and sister and brother. "In my Father's house there are many mansions." In fact, in heaven there is room for all of us, for Peter and the apostles, for his mother and the disciple Jesus loved, for the women who followed him from Galilee, for Simon of Cyrene and Veronica, for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, for Pilate and his soldiers, for the scribes and Pharisees, even for Judas, such is the loving mercy of God. God's mercy and love are greater than our weakness and sin. "Repent and believe the Good News", we heard on Ash Wednesday. Now all we need do is approach with confidence the throne of grace, the Cross of Jesus, and we shall receive mercy from him and find grace in our every need. To him be honour and glory and thanksgiving, now and for ever. Amen.