Homily for Good Friday, 2007
Real Media (sound and pictures)
For human beings suffering is the great leveler.
It cuts across all stations and divisions in human living.
The suffering of our time
is but a manifestation of a mystery across the ages.
And yet in our time
suffering presents a challenge to faith
such as has not been seen since the 16th century,
or more intensely during the Enlightenment.
We live in a time of rapid scientific and technological change,
some of which goes toward the invention of new ways to kill.
For example, last July the State of Israel
dropped one million cluster bombs on southern Lebanon,
where the best farm land is.
It may take 50 years to re-claim the area as productive land.
It is not beyond possibility
that our nation developed and sold this weaponry to Israel.
Last month I learned that the Department of Energy
is pushing for the development of a new class of nuclear weapons,
smaller and easier to maintain.
This is so even though we have 10,000 nuclear weapons, Russia 12,000.
We cannot overlook the suffering of human beings
from racism, sexism, and intolerance
toward those of different religious beliefs
or towards homosexual men and women.
Suffering respects no boundaries.
What do we want? We want relief.
We want a way out.
We want suffering to end even though we know this is impossible
short of somehow jumping out of the human condition.
We know that the early followers of Jesus
were faced with the horrible dilemma
of having been moved by this Rabbi
as nothing had ever before moved them.
Then they watch him and all he offered them
seemingly crash and burn in 24 hours.
They are devastated by their fear and confusion
as well as the betrayal, condemnation, torture,
and execution of this man who is the Beloved of God.
Is this the way it has to be?
Yes, it is, at least I believe so,
because Jesus takes the path of love.
It is not the path of vengeance.
It is not the path of redemptive violence.
It is the path of love.
The account of the passion that we hear from John,
is more concerned with Jesus' love for us than for his suffering.
John does not trivialize Jesus suffering but is more concerned with "why."
Jesus' death on the cross is the ultimate example
of the reason for the incarnation in the first place:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life."
In John's Gospel that we hear these words about the Good Shepherd:
"The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep....
This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life...."
In John we hear the words,
"love one another as I have loved you...."
Finally, "no one has greater love than this,
than that he lay down his life for his friends."
We know what parents do out of love for their children;
or the depth of self-sacrifice that spouses and partners offer each other;
or the steep personal price that one friend
pays for the well being of the other.
Ours is not the Redeemer of all theory and no practice,
sitting placidly above it all, hard as iron,
but a self-giving servant who loves you and me without limit
even to laying down his life for us.
There is also a challenge in the love that we see revealed in the cross
and our awareness of suffering in our world.
The cross of Jesus challenges us to be aware of the suffering
that we cause individually and as a nation by our actions.
Any time we diminish another human person
because of the color of her skin or ethnic group,
or sexual orientation, we increase suffering.
Any time we allow our government, without protest,
to use big bombs, we increase suffering.
There are no "smart bombs" -- they are all stupid.
The cross of Jesus challenges us to reflect on the fact
that our foreign policy in the Middle East
seems to be driven by two factors:
our indiscriminate support of the state of Israel
and our insatiable desire and need for cheap crude oil.
Just look at the suffering that our actions in the Middle East
has caused over the past 50 years. Mercy....
Finally, the love of Jesus on the cross challenges us
to entrust ourselves to the Father in our darkest moments,
especially as we face our own death,
to entrust ourselves to a God who has gone there before us
because this God draws sense out of senselessness,
hope out of hopelessness,
victory out of defeat,
life out of death.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
April 6, 2007
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