Meditations on Holy Week - Good Friday

From Brother Giles

Jesus has spent the night alone, in a cell, contemplating both the events at Gethsemane, and the sham trial in front of the Sanhedrin. His disciples have all fled. This is probably the loneliest moment of His life.

The trial itself was a sham in every way. There were many rules regarding justice under Jewish Law, and they were all geared towards acquittal. For example, if no one spoke up for the defendant, he was automatically released, because he had no advocate to stand up for him.

Furthermore, no Jewish trial could be conducted at night, because dark business (a trial for a capital offence) could not be conducted at night.

Also, Caiaphas could not "adjure" Jesus to tell the truth about His being the Son of God. It was forbidden under Jewish Law to order a defendant to incriminate himself, and any self-incriminating testimony was considered invalid. The fact that Caiaphas even asked the question was grounds for immediate dismissal of the charges.

Then there was the fact that there was no death penalty under Jewish Law at the time of Jesus's trial. That was why they took Him before Pilate. "We cannot put Him to death," they told Pilate, and they were right. So they had a pagan do their dirty work. Just like we do when we sin.

So Jesus is sitting in His cell, alone. Perhaps more alone than anyone has ever been in the history of the world.

This is why the Eucharist is kept on exposition after Mass on Holy Thursday. It's to keep Him company during the night.

And when Jesus isn't sitting alone, He's being hauled in front of the guards so they can mock Him. "Play the prophet for us! Who struck You?"

We can answer that. We did. We do. Every time we sin.

What was he thinking of in this, His darkest hour? Was He thinking of His Mother? Probably. It's perfectly normal for a man to think of his mother during a crisis, and especially at the end of his life.

But I think He was also thinking of us. Of all the people, big and little, who would respond to His invitation to love, and respond with generosity. I think that, as a man, He had to take a deep breath and remind Himself of why He was doing what He was doing. Because He was doing it for us. And just as He could look down all the long centuries between His time and ours and see us, so we, too, can look back down all the long centuries, back to being with Him in that lonely cell. We can keep Him company there, in the cell. And when He stands before Pilate. And when He's walking the Via Dolorosa. And when He's being nailed to the Cross. And especially, we can be with Him when He's dying. We can do it by uniting our little sufferings with His big one on the Cross. Because it doesn't matter if we're big or little. 

All that matters is Love. 

And there's nothing little about that.

I like to focus on Jesus' emotions during His Passion because we tend to focus on His physical torments. We tend to forget that He was (is) a man like us in all things but sin, and that includes emotions. And when we understand His very normal human emotions during His Passion, we can understand Him better. And that means we can love Him better.

A thought on the Passion of Christ: we tend to think of it as His sufferings, but I don't think of it that way. God is a God of Life, of Love, of Happiness, not a God of misery and suffering. Misery and suffering aer the effects of sin.They are not God's invention.

I see Jesus' Passion as a Passion to create Life. In this context, what we call His Passion (His suffering and death) are really only an expression of His real Passion, to create Life. "Did humanity mess things up? Yes, horribly! Can I fix it? Yes, by facing Death itself and conquering it. Will it be hard? Sure...but My Passion to create new life for these poor people is so great, I MUST do it!!

(I say "MUST" to emphasis His desire to create life, of course, not that He was bound or forced to die for us against His Will, in any way .)

That's why, today, Good Friday, I invite us ala to focus on His real Passion, the desire to create life, a desire that is so intense, that even suffering and humiliation seem a small price to pay to participate in it. That's what the Saints learned, and it's what we must learn, also, as much as we can, with His help.

Additional commentary from Veronica, Sister in Christ Jesus

I think we often focus so much more on this physical torture, and the mockery of the soldiers, and the humiliation, that we brush past the loneliness. And loneliness intertwined with the fact that Jesus knew all that was going to happen to Him with great detail (how much more difficult is pain when we know exactly when and how it comes. Those who want to know the future are fools. We can barely carry our crosses as it is. Knowing what cross will come in the future, how heavy it would be, and exactly what it would imply—knowing all this, would crush us in the present) makes it hard to fathom what he was going through.

And when we are incapable of understanding His pain and trial, as Br Giles said, we can at least unite our pain to His. For that is one of the reasons He chose to endure such torture and loneliness—so we wouldn't have to do it alone.