Good Friday Homily: an unlikely place to find true power

The center of our adoration today, Good Friday, is the cross, an instrument of terror and shame that has been transformed into the instrument of our salvation.  To understand such power from Jesus, we have to look at it this way. 

One time a journalist asked a hospital chaplain, “You deal with human sufferings on a daily basis.  Where do you see the real power of Christ in the midst of all sufferings in the world today?”  The chaplain answered: “Come with me and I’ll show you.”  She led the journalist to the room of a young patient.  “I want you to meet Mikey.  He’s 19 and he has been bed-ridden for the past 2 years.  Mikey has a rare disease that began to show effect when he turned 16 and it’s getting worse everyday.  Now Mikey is just lying there, unable to move any muscle, unable to speak though he could see, hear and especially he could feel the pain.  Every time I come to sit with him, I witness the pain and distress of a young man who just lies there helplessly, can’t do anything .”  Both the journalist and the chaplain just stood in silence for long moment. 

The journalist did not know how to react, but finally asked another question, “Is it difficult for you to come and sit with Mikey every day?”  The chaplain answered, “Yes,” then pause for a moment, she reached for Mikey’s hand, held it and said, “after awhile though, I slowly understand: this is the Passion of Christ in one of his children.  If you want to know how Jesus felt on the cross, just spend some time with Mikey.  If you want to see the real power of Christ, here it is.  He does not have to be totally helpless because he is God, yet he chooses to go through the helplessness of human fate.  He does it because he loves Mikey.”

The passion of Christ that we celebrate today is the process of his self-emptying: from the utmost supreme dignity of a Divine Being, he chooses to empty Himself, bit by bit, to reach the utmost humiliation and darkest of human experience: a shameful death. 

The Liturgy on Good Friday helps us understand this journey and what we, the faithful have to follow.

After the Adoration of the Cross, we will receive Communion.  After we adore the self-emptying act of the Son of God, we are called to be in union with Him in his sufferings.  After we look upon the sufferings of Christ, we are also called to be present with the sufferings of our brothers and sisters. 

Holy Communion does just that: we are united with Christ, and Christ wants to be united with his other children, especially the suffering.  He doesn’t want to be present only spiritually, just like the Christ is not only spiritually present in the consecrated hosts.  He wants it real in flesh and blood.  Whose flesh and whose blood?  Yours, mine, the flesh and blood of those who are suffering.  When we suffer, Christ suffers.  When our brothers and sisters suffer, Christ suffers, and then we, the ones who are in union with Him, also suffer. 

That is why sins against our brothers and sisters are also sins against Christ, and the indifference toward our brothers/sisters’ sufferings is the difference toward Christ’s sufferings.

Where is the real power of Christ in the world today?  The people of all generations will continue to struggle with that question when they are facing sufferings.

In our faith, we are given a gift:  when you and I receive the Body of Christ, its power remains in us but it is there as a potential.  It has to come out.  So if you are a doctor or a scientist, work hard to find the cure for Mikey, but make sure to do it for the benefit of human kind rather than for your own benefit.  If you are trained to use psychotherapy to help Mikey and his family cope with this emotional desperation, do a good job in what you are trained for, but make sure to do it with a self-less love.  And when all of the sciences and human efforts fail on Mikey, remain by his side.  Be present with him in his sufferings.  Don't run away, don't be too quick to over-spiritualize what he goes through.  Don't try to come up with a quick fix for him as our digital era has trained our mentality.  Just remain by his bed like His Mother Mary remained by the cross, bearing all of the emotional torture on her shoulders and in her motherly heart...  Just bear it all like Christ also does.  That is the power of Christ manifest in his Mystical Body, that is, us, the Church.

Being faithful to Christ and his Passion, our human sufferings can also be used as the instrument of salvation.