Good Friday

April 14, 2006

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

Dr. R.F. Gumperson was an internationally famous physicist who is probably most remembered for his famous law, which he expressed in 1942. Some of you are probably aware of it. It reveals a truth about the world that we do not wish to readily admit. That is, "actual events may not always follow our intentions." Gumperson's Law can be stated as "the probability of anything happening is in inverse ratio to its desirability." Gumperson's Law explains why, that after a pay-raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you had before. Gumperson's Law explains why, when you're in the city, late for an appointment, every parking space is on the other side of the street, going the other way. Gumperson's Law explains why a dishwasher will break down on the evening you give a dinner for 12 people.

We can put the blame on Gumperson's Law for all our ills and the ills of the world if we want to, but scripture says "No!" It tells us to repent instead. Jesus tells us that we need to look at ourselves honestly. Jesus’ death is a consequence of humanity closing itself  to God’s grace, that has rejected the word of salvation brought by Jesus. We are told that we need to be honest about the way we have been hurting ourselves, and hurting other people. Only then, can we make an appropriate response to God's love as we stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.

In the passion from the Gospel of John which we just listened to, Pilate says to Jesus: "Then you are a king? " Jesus responds, "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. " And Pilate says, "What is truth?"

Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to his followers, "If you make my Word your home, you will indeed be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. "

What is truth? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. " (Jn 3:16)

What is truth? "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. " (Jn. 3:17)

What is truth? In the Gospel of John (3:18-21) we hear, "Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. "

The truth is that the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ is Good News for us, because Jesus gave up the love of life for the sake of the life of love; his death is our life, and his loss is our gain. Jesus' death on the cross is telling us that God so loves each of us that he is working in our life at this very moment to bring it to fulfillment.

Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, says, "...the Cross thus brings us to the very heart of all that has taken place. Jesus who upon entering into the world said: `I have come, O God, to do your will, 'made himself obedient to the Father in everything and, `having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end,' giving himself completely to them.

He who had come `not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' attains on the Cross the height of love: `Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 'And he died for us while we were yet sinners.

In this way Jesus proclaims that life finds its center, its meaning and its fulfillment when it is given up.

We too are called to give our lives for our brothers and sisters, and thus realize in the fullness of truth the meaning and destiny of our existence.

We shall be able to do this because the Lord, has given us the example, and has bestowed on us, the power of His Spirit. We shall be able to do this, if every day, with Him and like Him, we are obedient to the Father and do his will."

The cross should not be viewed as a meaningless, tragic end to a life of surrender to the will of God, but rather, as a culmination of God's search for man that took place in Jesus' identification of himself with us sinners, even though he himself was sinless, and also, as the fulfillment of the mission of the suffering servant vicariously dying for us and for our salvation.

Thus, shortly in the liturgy when we have the veneration of the cross, our sense, when venerating the cross, should not be - look at what my sins have done - but rather, it should be, "Look how much I am worth, for even while I was yet dead in my sins, Christ did this for me out of love for me."

Now that, my brothers and sisters, is the truth.