GOOD FRIDAY:
APRIL 18, 2014
“He bowed His head
and
breathed
His last”
Oh, is it a Good Friday?
Is it because the world rejoices that God is crucified in the
person of Jesus?
Is it because the evil had its final say over the good?
No, I believe it is Good Friday because it is God’s
field day.
Today, God reveals his humanity and divinity in the most
definitive form. Because Jesus is ‘deeply
troubled’ or is in ‘agony’ just like any of us in the face of human suffering
and death.
Jesus does not want to die nor does He want to suffer as He prays
‘remove this cup’.
Today is Good Friday because Jesus shares his intimate
feelings with his intimate friends when He was agonizing over His impending
death.
Jesus shows us that we can let go before our intimate few all our
agonies, pains, and allow them to love us.
It is Good Friday because Jesus revealed His divinity
by surrendering to the will of the Father as He said: “Not what I want but what
you want”.
Fr. James Martin SJ asked the question “How was Jesus able to
carry out the will of the Father? It was
because He trusted his Abba, His love”.
It is Good Friday because “the invitation to surrender, to
accept our cup, to acknowledge the inevitability of suffering, and to step onto
the path of sacrifice comes in the context of a relationship with God”, a
relationship of trust, a relationship of love.
Today we can trust and in all the days of our life that God will
be with us in all that we do and in all that we suffer or “there is someone
else in the boat pulling on the oars- even if we do not feel it”.
It is Good Friday because Abba Father does the ultimate
sacrifice of letting His Son face the agonizing passion and death for the sake
of redeeming, winning over, saving the lost, the least, the last and the
forsaken.
The Suffering of Jesus
It is Good Friday when God revealed his overwhelming
love for the human person. It is Good Friday because St. Peter says, “In
his own body, He brought your sins to the cross, so that all of us, dead in
sin, could live in accord with God’s will”.
“By his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
It is Good Friday because I am set free from the
bondage of sin, from the devastating effects of sin in me through the death of
Jesus, the Savior. It is like God recognizing our own inability to save
ourselves and comes to our rescue as in the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori “A
visible sign of God’s passionate love for us”.
It is Good Friday because we have been redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ. Jesus has paid the price for my sins and the sins of
the humanity and so this Friday is so ‘Good’ for the whole of
creation.
This Good Friday, as we lovingly gaze long and hard upon the
body of Christ on the cross we recognize the God who suffers with us and
through us for our redemption.
Someone once said: “nothing
changed in heaven on Good Friday but
everything potentially changed on earth”.
For today, we can “confidently approach the throne of grace to
receive mercy and favor” (Hebrews 4:16).
It is Good Friday because Divine Mercy is revealed in
the image of Jesus on the cross, the shocking, dramatic and compelling way of
the Great Love.
This prayer of Richard Rohr is so appropriate for today:
“Crucified Jesus, you are not a stranger to my soul, you are not
foreign to our history. You have
revealed, resolved, and forgiven it all on the cross. I join the whole world in thanking you.
This is indeed a Good Friday”.
God Bless you always!
Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS
Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!
Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director
Reflection on the Passion
We were the reason Jesus died for us..
Were you there when they crucified my Lord...
Jesus Remember Me ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTo-8pusSQ
Dear Friends....
Please share
with us your comments of our
Daily Lenten Reflection.
Please share
with us your comments of our
Daily Lenten Reflection.
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com
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Dear Friends....
Please share with us your comments of our
Daily Reflections.
How has it touched you?
How has it helped you in your Lenten journey?
You may post your comment here
or confidently share with me
@
E-Mail it to us at
lasaletteshrinedirector@gmail.com