ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear People of God,

We celebrated yesterday the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We saw how, at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, Jesus established the Paschal Meal of the new and eternal covenant—a meal that would prefigure, and later on, re-enact or re-present His Sacrifice on Calvary. We saw how He gave us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. We saw how He left to His Church the great gift of His real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Today, Good Friday, is the day when we see our High Priest in the greatest act of His life, which is His Death, freely offered to His Father out of love. We see Him, like a lamb being led to slaughter, and this is why we call Him the Lamb of God.

Today we are companions of Mary at the foot of the Cross, and there we begin to understand just how much Jesus our High Priest understands us. We heard the reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which told us that "he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins" and that "by his stripes we were healed." The Lord indeed laid upon Jesus "the guilt of us all." Bearing our infirmities, being oppressed and condemned, He died for us on the Cross. He died to bring peace to the world, and as St. John says: "to gather into one the dispersed children of God" (Jn 11:52).

All this makes us aware, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness." And because of this we know that we can "confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need."

Today, on Good Friday, just as on Palm Sunday, the Church proclaims to us the Gospel of the Passion of Christ and leads us up to the great moment of Jesus’ Death, when He offers Himself up in sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

At this point the Church pauses. She pauses to reflect and to get hold of herself at the Death of Christ. She remembers how, for 2000 years, she has celebrated:

- This death itself,
- And the One who died.

The Church remembers those words of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, who back in the fourth century said that the Church is proud of all Christ’s actions, but her greatest boast is the Cross.

The Church recalls how we caused this death of Jesus by our sins, and she remembers also those words of Saint Augustine who explains that, in the plan of God, there is—what he calls—a wonderful exchange between God and man, between divinity and humanity.

Saint Augustine goes on to tell us that according to this plan we actually gave God the power to do something that He could not do: in giving Him through Mary our humanity, we gave Him the power to die—to die so He could save us. And on Calvary He gave us in exchange the power to live. And so the Church, addressing our Lord Jesus Christ, will forever proclaim "by dying you destroyed our death, by rising you restored our life."

Thus the Cross is for us the great sign of victory, the sign of Christ’s triumph over death, and the sign of life for us.

Today we remember the Cross and what happened on the Cross.

We remember how Jesus carried it willingly and fell beneath its weight, and how, finally, He hung on the Cross for three hours, suffering freely, out of love.

We remember how from the Cross He spoke words of pardon and merciful love.

We remember how He spoke to His Father, but also how He spoke to His Mother, whom He considered the type and representative and Mother of His Church.

We remember that He was dying because of the Father’s plan of salvation for all humanity, but that He was also dying to redeem His Mother and all those who with her would constitute His Church.

We remember how, after giving us His Mother and after commending His life to His Father, Jesus bowed His head and died.

In that Death on the Cross we received the power to live forever. And so on this Good Friday we boast about the Cross and venerate it. We praise the Father for His plan to give us life through the death of Jesus on the Cross. We praise Jesus, His Son, because Jesus fulfilled this plan in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why today we formulate our prayer in these words: "We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world!" Amen.