GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD (GOOD FRIDAY), 3 APRIL 2026

John 18:1-19:42.  The proclamations of the Lord’s Passion during Holy Week give us only a taste of the horror and desolation of what happened.  The religious authorities had achieved their goal already decided earlier in our gospel accounts: that Jesus must die.  Under Roman rule, however, they had no power to do so except by stealth.  That meant the Roman authorities had to become involved, so the political dealings regarding Jesus’ death became intense.  The religious authorities were the ones to arrest Jesus, but his trial was in the hands of the Romans.  Jesus’ mockery and humiliation was intense among the Roman troops, but the crowd gathered in Jerusalem took part as well.  It was a dangerous situation for all who were connected to Jesus, especially the disciples who had by now become public figures.  Almost all of them fled, but not John  the Evangelist.  The women remained faithful, however, and were able to stand not far from the cross.  It is to these women, including John the Evangelist, that we owe the powerful witness of what happened and what the gospels record.  What happened during the Lord’s Passion is the very heart of the gospels, and all of them culminate in recounting the Lord’s Passion.  Everything else led to that, so the Paschal Mystery stands at the heart of our faith, our Eucharist, our baptism, and of all the sacraments of our faith.  All of us have to reckon with it; nobody can remain neutral. 

Our Lord’s Passion is his Passover, and ours too.  In it we see the meaning of the original Exodus (Passover).  The Exodus  led to freedom of the People of Israel from brutal oppression, leading them to a new and spacious land.  Jesus’ Passover led to his humanity being liberated from oppression and violence.  His Passover leads to the redemption of humanity from death and the slavery of sin.  The Church encourages all of us to see our own Passover from sin and suffering in Jesus’ Passover.

Frankly, we cannot possibly experience yet again all of the horror and violence that led to the Lord’s Passion, or the threat under which he had lived for so much of his life among us.  We know what eventually happened in the Resurrection and all that followed from it  - the triumph of love over death and violence, the triumph of Life over Sin and Death.  Our obligation remains, however, to take a good hard look at what happened at the Cross of Christ and to know what we are able of the violence, of religious and secular corruption, and the meaning of hatred, never for getting that they led to our salvation by the loving, willing,  sacrificial self-emptying of Messiah himself.