Good Friday is the darkest and most solemn day of the Church’s year, a day that draws many people to the Lord. We come carrying the burdens of our hearts: our sorrows and our joys, our experiences of death and of life. We bring before God our own lives, often marked by pain, mystery, and the struggle between dying and living.
Today, we contemplate the profound and unsettling mystery of the Suffering Servant, foretold long ago by the prophet Isaiah. This mysterious figure, though innocent, takes upon himself the sins of all, bringing healing and the promise of peace. As the Scripture says: “He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:2-4). And yet, in the midst of such suffering and apparent defeat, the deepest truth of our faith is revealed.
The prophet continues: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). What seemed like failure is, in fact, the victory of God’s love. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded that “although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:8-9). In Jesus, suffering is not meaningless; it becomes the path to redemption.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this Good Friday, we see a light shining in the darkness. The Cross stands as the answer to our confusion, the hope in our despair, and the promise that suffering and death do not have the final word. In the Passion of Christ, we witness the passage from death to life, from the earthly to the heavenly, from sin to reconciliation with God. As we venerate the Cross today, let us bring our own wounds, our struggles, and our sins to Jesus. He has carried them already. Let us entrust ourselves to his mercy, confident that through his suffering, we are healed, and through his death, we are given life. May this Good Friday lead us to a deeper faith, a stronger hope, and a more generous love, as we await the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.
Scripture Readings:
Is 52:13–53:12 • Heb 4:14–16, 5:7–9 • Jn 18:1–19:42