On Good Friday the Church invites us to look at Christ, who was crucified and died for our Salvation.
Now more than ever, adoring the wood of the cross calls us to a profound reflection. With the original sin, evil, suffering and death entered the world. Man, wounded by Original Sin, became a victim of that same sin in a never-ending battle between that which is of God and that which is not; between doing the right things and injustice; and between truth and falsehood.
The history of the Church, just as in our own lives, will never forget Good Friday 2020. More than 2,000 years ago, at the moment of the Lord’s death, darkness covered the earth. Today this darkness seems tangible, if not even suffocating. In the last few days millions of people have asked that imperative question that always re-surfaces and afflicts them: Why? Why all this suffering? Why do people die? The answer is because sin and death entered the world due to the devil’s jealousy (Wis 2:24) and this evil will be present until the end of time.
What did Christ, the Lamb without blemish, come to do in this world that is full of evil and injustice? Humanity is guilty of many sins: man against man; father against son; people against people and even man against God. We have many faults which infiltrate our lives. We are guilty and justice therefore demands that we should pay for the evil we have done to ourselves and to others. However, we know that we have sinned and that the Son of God has paid the price for us. Jesus is the Emmanuel – God with us, who shared and embraced all the sufferings and sins of the world upon the cross. Jesus lived as one of us, He shared our humanity even to the extent of suffering the consequences of all of our most deplorable acts. This is my Emmanuel, God with me, the God that knows my suffering, the God who knows the intimate cries of my sorrow. He is the God alone in whom I can trust.
Jesus is not limited merely to sharing the sorrow of humankind. Jesus is God and the day of His sacrifice affected all mankind as it restored the light to the faces that sin had disfigured. Death swallowed up the life of Christ, but Jesus’ divinity destroyed and defeated death forever. The blood of Christ, poured out for us today on the cross, changed the course of sin and brought death to life, perdition to salvation.
In this day in which life and death engage in a dual, in which the Author of life dies and comes face to face with death – death is destroyed forever. Let us kneel before the cross, which displays the “Wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:18) with which Christ wins over evil, pain and death. In this way, we can enjoy the blessed eternity that sin would have otherwise stolen from us.
Our glory is the Cross of Christn. I Him is the Victory.