BIYERNES DE LA DOLOROSA, BOUNDLESS LOVE.

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March 29, 2024.
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion.

Readings: Is 52:13—53:12; Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25;Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1—19:42.

"He himself was wounded for our sins." Isaiah 53:5

An Arabic proverb says: “Only a mother can understand the suffering of a son.” An Ashanti proverb adds: “Pain is inevitable suffering is optional.”

What we celebrate today, Good Friday, is suffering. The suffering Son of God, the suffering Mother of God. We are called to revive and meditate on the suffering our Lord Jesus Christ went through for our salvation. As says the Prophet Isaiah in the fourth oracle of the Servant of the Lord, "He himself was wounded for our sins." Jesus is truly the incarnation of that suffering servant. And like Mary, his Mother, we too are urged to take our share in the Lord's suffering.

On this Good Friday, let us orient our reflection, meditation, and thoughts on the reality of suffering. Jesus suffered and died on the Cross to take away our greatest suffering, our enslavement to sin. Regrettably, humanity is still subject to suffering through choices and decisions that we make.

Today, again, like two thousand years ago, many Jesus are brought to suffer. They are obligated to carry heavy crosses that paralyze and dishonor their dignity. To this very day, innocent men, women, and children are made to bear the cross of other people’s faults, greed, pride, and lust. These are the truly incarnated Christ.

Jesus died out of love for us. He went through the heaviest journey that led him to the Calvary to teach us what it means to be in love. May we make our love for him and our neighbor also total and sacrificial. May love lead us, day after day, to make a perfect and total oblation of ourselves.

The Catechism could help us meditate on this Good Friday's mystery when it says: "It is love "to the end" that confers on Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life. Now "the love of Christ controls us because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore, all have died." No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all." CCC 616. Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the cross. Like him, let's also consummate our love in our daily crosses.

Another way of consummating that love is to imitate Mary. She stood by the Lord’s Cross. She suffered with him, and silently she endured her suffering. She is truly the Dolorosa and the model of the true disciple. One who not only carries her cross but also embraces and hugs that Cross in her masterly arms.

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