HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY, 2006

 

SELLING THE LORD AT A DISCOUNT

 

Peter looked out one day from heaven and saw Judas coming towards him.  Judas was carrying a small wooden box in his hand.  Peter called out and said “Judas, where are you going to”?  “I am coming to see you”, replied Judas.  Peter said, Judas, you know you are a traitor and betrayer; you sold our master and had him crucified.  What is it you are carrying in your hand?  “Come and see”, Judas said.  Peter drew near and Judas opened the wooden box and there was a cock.  Peter asked Judas, ‘what is this’?  Judas replied, “Peter, have you forgotten”?  At this time the cock in the box crowed, Peter became quiet and Judas said to him: ‘Can you now remember’?  You too are not a good man.  I betrayed our master but you denied him.  

 

The summary message of Good Friday is that Jesus was condemned, crucified, bled and died.  But behind these scenarios lie what gave him the greatest agony, namely, the denial by those he taught and healed and the deliberate denial and betrayal by Judas and Peter his disciples.  Imagine what Jesus was feeling when Judas walked out that door and darkness fell.  Imagine how he felt, when he looked to Peter to stay by him, and in spite of his earlier promise to do so, declined and denied him.   What a suffering?

 

Today, Jesus is still suffering in the hands of so many who still don’t want to accept him as God but continue to look for ways to discredit him.  In the 2^nd century, some unorthodox groups came up with false doctrines that discredited Jesus and his mission: Marcionism, Montanism, Arianism and Agnosticism.  Today Agnosticism has been revived by Dan Brown in his book, The Da Vinci Code, which strives to establish through false claims that Jesus is not God and that Jesus was the husband of Mary Magdalene and the father of some biological children.  Today those who are propagating the gospel of Judas claim that the four gospels are not correct and that Jesus promised that Judas will go to heaven thereby making Judas a saint instead of the sinner that he is.  So many movies and literature books exist today that portray Jesus in a bad light to tarnish his image. Do you need to be told why School Spring Break ceases to take place during the Holy Week?  All is done to deny the Lord and discredit the Christian faith.  The Los Angeles Times, Friday, March 31 has the caption “Largest study reveals that Prayer has no power to heal”.  But it is funny how people try to measure divine domain with scientific principles.  These false claims are very dangerous to the faith.  It worries me because when these things begin to happen our love for God will grow cold (Matt. 24:12).  If these things were to be done to Mohammed and the Islamic Religion, Muslims would have set the world ablaze – our patience speaks of the authenticity of our faith. The second reading of this Mass tells us that Jesus, our master did not revolt but learned obedience through suffering, and became by that fact the source of eternal salvation to all who believe in him.

 

On another hand, we too are not exempt from the denial and betrayal of Jesus.  Like Peter, we can see only what Judas did but fail to realize that we deny and betray him in so many ways: we doubt some of his teachings and pick and choose them, we deny Him our time – we have time for everything but for God.  Jesus is worth more than billions but Judas sold him on discount at 30 pieces of silver.  Like Judas we sell Jesus at a discount when we equate him to humans and prefer human laws to the laws of God, when we receive the Eucharist without going to Confession, when we are ashamed to talk about him before our relations and friends or pray in a public places. 

 

Today the Church is calling us to consider the prize of the precious life-blood Jesus shed as a God-man to save us.  It is not any blood, but a divine blood, which according to the first reading is for our forgiveness and salvation.  So the Church expects to consider the precious prize he paid to purchase us (1 Cor. 6:20) and then join hands with him to fight opposition, false rumors, blackmail and doubts aimed at denying his divinity and betraying his religion. This night the church invites us to renew our commitment to Jesus Christ – to accept him, to protect him and to defend him through preaching and witness of life.   

 

When Thomas doubted and later realized that Jesus is God, he re-committed himself to him and said: “My Lord and my God” ( Jon 30:24ff).  When Peter realized that Jesus is God he repented, unlike Judas who did not repent but hanged himself.  Here lies the difference between Judas and Peter.  Peter did not stop at that, he renounced his curses and re-dedicated himself three times to the Lordship of Jesus Christ ( John 31:15ff).  In like manner the Church invites us to do the same as we kiss the cross on which Jesus died.  Just like heroic men and women kiss their victory belts, guns and cups after victorious achievements, today believers in Christ will kiss the Cross of the Lord this night with devotion as our instrument of victory over sin and death.   Experience has taught us that some hesitate to kiss the cross.   We can give some practical example with   the national flag.  When we look at the American flag, we see beyond the piece of cloth, we see the dignity of America as a Nation.  We stand up, we sing, we applaud and salute America symbolised in the flag.  Tonight there is something much more than that.  Jesus is present behind the Cross.  Let us re-acknowledge him as God and Savior and re-dedicate ourselves to him as we reverence and kiss the Cross.