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Theo Tigno•
4/14/2006 8:19 am
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Good Friday 2006 |
John 19: 30
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for an end to abortion, euthenasia and infanticide.
Today's Good Friday reflections are taken from Pope John Paul II's reflections on the stations of the cross.
The 11th Station: Jesus is nailed to the Cross.
"They have pierced my hands and feet, I can count all my bones" (Ps 22:16-17). "I can count...": how prophetic were these words! And yet we know that this body is a ransom. The whole of this body, its hands, its feet, its every bone, is a priceless ransom. The Whole Man is in a state of utmost tension: his bones, his muscles, his nerves, his every organ and every cell, is stretched and strained to breaking-point. "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12:32).
These words express the full reality of the crucifixion. And part of this reality is the terrible tension penetrating Christ's hands, feet and every bone: driving its way into the entire body which, nailed like a mere thing to the beams of the Cross, is about to be utterly annihilated in the convulsive agony of death. And the whole of the world which Jesus wills to draw to himself enters into the reality of the Cross. The world is dependent on the gravitational pull of this body, which inertia now causes to sink lower and lower.
The Passion of Christ Crucified lies precisely in this gravitational pull.
"You are from below, I am from above" (Jn 8:23). From the Cross he says: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).
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The 12th Station: Jesus dies on the Cross.
Here we have the greatest, the most sublime work of the Son in union with the Father. Yes: in union, in the most perfect union possible, precisely at the moment when he cries: "Eloi, Eloi lama sabachthani" - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46). This work finds expression in the verticality of his body stretched against the perpendicular beam of the Cross and in the horizontality of his arms stretched along the transverse beam. To gaze upon those arms one would think that in the effort they expend they embrace all humanity and all the world.
They do indeed embrace it.
Here is the man. Here is God himself. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). In him: in those arms outstretched along the transverse beam of the Cross.
The mystery of the Redemption.
Nailed to the Cross, pinned in that terrible position, Jesus calls on the Father (cf. Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46; Lk 23:46). All his words bear witness that he is one with the Father. "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30); "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9); "My Father is working still, and I am working" (Jn 5:17).
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The 13th Station: Jesus is taken down from the Cross.
When the body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross and laid in his Mother's arms, in our mind's eye we glimpse again the moment when Mary accepted the message brought by the angel Gabriel: "And behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk 1:31-33). Mary had replied simply: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38), as though even then she wanted to give expression to what she now experiences.
In the mystery of the Redemption, grace - the gift of God himself - is interwoven with a "price" paid by the human heart. In this mystery we are enriched by a gift from on high (Jas 1:17) and at the same time "bought" by the ransom paid by the Son of God (cf. 1 Cor 6:20; 7:23; Acts 20:28). And Mary, who more than anyone was enriched by gifts, pays all the more. With her heart.
Inseparable from this mystery is the extraordinary promise spoken of by Simeon during the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: "And a sword will pierce through your heart, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Lk 2:35).
This promise has also been fulfilled. How many human hearts bleed for the heart of this Mother who has paid so dearly!
Once again Jesus lies in her arms, as he did in the stable in Bethlehem (cf. Lk 2:16), during the flight into Egypt (cf. Mt 2:14) and at Nazareth (cf. Lk 2:39-40). Pietà.
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Take care and God Bless.
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