Good Friday Homily 2006
Jesus began his public ministry with the words:
"The reign of God is at hand — repent and believe the good news."
Jesus reached out to tax collectors and sinners,
angering religious leaders.
He cast out demons and restored sons and daughters to their parents.
Jesus cast out a demon from Mary Magdalene and she became a disciple:
He delighted in their friendship of women like Martha and Mary.
He healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath and forgave sins,
boldly claiming authority for both actions.
Jesus taught and practiced non-violence every day.
Parables, those simple, everyday stories
provided the framework for his message about his Father's reign.
Jesus used these stories to challenge the boundaries
of social and religious convention.
For parables are subversive —
we know that we are being parabled when our first reaction is:
"I don't quite know what you mean by that story
but I already know I don't like it."
Along with parable stories,
Jesus also engaged in parabolic actions.
Our retreat master in June Father Eugene Hensell
pointed to two of these:
Jesus' healing encounter with the woman in Luke chapter seven
and the feetwashing in John's Gospel.
In both of these accounts
Jesus is embodying important dimensions of the reign of God:
the forgiveness of a public sinner
and the reversal of social roles.
I believe that the way that Jesus embraces his passion and death
is his ultimate parabolic action on behalf of the message of the reign of God.
It is easy to separate the public ministry of Jesus
from his entry into Jerusalem — but they are seamless.
I wish to give just a two examples.
Jesus taught his disciples to meet violence in a non-violent manner,
to resist evil and harm with the force of truth and integrity,
with what Martin Luther King called "soul-force."
In the passion accounts Jesus never resorts to becoming Clint Eastwood-like:
" Go ahead, make my day!"
He resists the use of violent force by his disciples
because the reign of God can never rest on coercion.
It would no longer be the reign of God —
it would be the reign of Herod, Caiaphas, or Pilate.
A second example is Jesus making a sacrifice of his life for us.
In common usage the word "sacrifice"
is often taken to mean "to give something up."
This meaning has evolved from the original meaning "to make holy."
Our tradition recognizes that becoming holy
somehow involves giving something up.
Our fundamental understanding of sacrifice
often comes to us through our parents.
Growing up we are aware that our mom and dad
are doing things for us that are completely for us,
that require them to put our interests before their own.
Dying on the cross is Christ's sacrifice for us.
It is the ultimate gift, the gift of his life.
The only way for Jesus to avoid death
is to renounce the love that has motivated his entire ministry.
Jesus is executed because he refuses to stop loving.
He refuses to give up his commitment to the reign of his Father.
The parabolic action of the cross is most visible in John's Passion account.
There is an artistic tradition that places the entire Trinity at the Cross.
Jesus is fully in charge — he takes up his life and then lays it down.
At the extreme from Mark's Gospel,
where Jesus experiences total abandonment, even by God,
here in John, Jesus is surrounded by those who love him:
Mary, his mother; the Beloved Disciple; Mary Magdalene, and others.
The Father is there.
Some artists show the Father embracing the Cross
in an action of love, grief, and tender care.
The Spirit, too, is present, as at Jesus' Baptism or the Transfiguration.
This symbolism points to our belief
that the world was created out of the love of the Trinity
and it is fully redeemed by the Trinity.
Jesus is not sent out on this lonely mission,
isolated from the love of his Father.
Rather the action on the Cross
continues the generativity of creation.
The redemptive love of the Cross flows out of the whole Trinity.
Jesus' death on the cross is a parabolic action:
because death gives way to a new, transformed life;
because the humanity of Jesus is not chewed to pieces by hate and vengeance;
because a non-violent response to evil overcomes the violence of the cross.
Jesus takes the human-made wreckage of the world inside himself
and labors with it —
a long labor, almost three days.
He does not let go of it until he can transform it
and return it to us as life.
This is a parabolic action by Jesus,
not to prevent pain but to redeem it by going through it with us.
This can only be the logic of love.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
April 14, 2006
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