March 21, 2008
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
Mass Readings:
Isaiah 52:13—53:12
Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1—19:42
I AM. Two simple words that are the most powerful ever spoken. Jesus is using the very words that God the Father spoke to Moses. I AM. Those two simple words wrap up the most mind boggling reality. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all that is, was, and ever will be. God, the uncaused first cause. This is next to impossible to wrap our brain around. Jesus declares to the apostles that in him, all that is possible exists and is brought to fulfillment.
There is no way that we can ever be outside of God. God is everything. All that is good, life giving, is of God. When we experience the bad things that come in life, God is there to give us all that is good. When we are afraid, God is there to comfort us. God is present in all the good times and bad sustaining us and guiding us.
We cannot ever be separated from God. Even if we consciously choose to ignore God, God does not ignore us. When we choose to defy God, God does not defy us. God cannot turn his back on us. God is from the beginning, all that is, was, and ever will be. To live is to be surrounded by and filled with God's presence.
Today we reflect upon the horror of the crucifixion. We are horrified by the image of Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross. How can it be that the God who is everything can be nailed to a cross!? It just doesn't make sense to our modern sensibilities. Yet the crucifixion is again, proof that God is all that can be. God the Son becomes our weakness and takes upon himself the sin that is ours so that we may be saved. So complete is God's power that God becomes the sacrifice so that we might live! God becomes the weakness of sin so that we might be strong. God becomes the horror so that we might not be afraid. God takes on death in order to conquer it so that we might live!
God is life. God is all. God simply is everything.
