On this Good Friday, let us dare to gaze long upon the face of the Crucified One.
Is this gaze not the same as that of all those who are nailed to the cross with Jesus? The mothers who mourn the unjust death of their husbands and children; the Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter, the many migrants who die at sea; indigenous women and girls who are abused and murdered; refugees crammed into makeshift camps; people in Haiti, Ukraine, Syria; the elderly left alone to die; young people deprived of a future; those who live in fear, violence, war…
Will we allow ourselves to be moved, even confused, by this lover of humanity who goes to the end of his life in the name of all those who suffer?
“No one has greater love than this no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” [John 15:13]
Faced with creation and humanity wounded and oppressed, Jesus never tires of repeating: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34]. On the cross, Jesus shows us the only way to break the vicious circle of violence and evil, the only path of wisdom that overturns all our human patterns… It is the path of forgiveness and love, even towards our enemies.
In the silence that surrounds us today, as we gaze upon the Cross and the Crucified One, may we allow the cry of faith of the centurion at the foot of the cross to rise up from our hearts: “Truly, this man was the Son of God“ [Marc 15:39].
Sr Louise Madore, fdls
Canada
