Homily for Good Friday - A

The Cross of Christ

During the time of our Lord, the cross was a sign of total humiliation and disgrace. Crucifixion was an extreme form of execution reserved only for hardened ande hated criminals. To be crucified was the most dishonorable and the most painful way to die. The person crucified was publicly displayed by the Romans as a piece of human trash. But it was by dying on the cross that the Son of God chose to redeem the world. Indeed, as St. Paul wrote to the Philippians: “…though He was in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God … but emptied himself… and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Phil 1:6-8).

On the cross, the God who is Love showed the depth of his redeeming love for sinful humanity. For the Romans, the cross was a horrible instrument of death; for Christ and in Him, the cross became a source of our new life and redemption. For us Christians, the cross means new life beyond death and earthly suffering. The cross reminds us that in Christ and through Him, we are truly God’s beloved sons and daughters. It reminds us of our true worth and incomparable human dignity. After all, God sacrificed no less than his Beloved Son for our behalf. On the cross, God shouts: “tao, mahal kita! This is how much I love you! I have made you to be with me, to share with me my eternal glory.”

This is why we venerate the cross of our Savior. Christ’s cross not only symbolizes suffering and death. Above all, it symbolizes God’s power over sin and death; it symbolizes our salvation and new life in Him and through Him. On Good Friday liturgy, the priest intones: “This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Savior of the world.” And we rightly respond: “Come, let us worship.”

This Holy Week, we will indeed worship the cross of Christ. But as we do, let us remember that the Cross has empowered us to rise above our sinfulness and human frailty in our daily lives. Christ’s death on the Cross has redeemed us from our sins and empowered us to live our new life in Him. Remember: it is not sin that has the last word in our lives. It is rather our redemption in Christ. That means that indeed we can live holy lives! “Let us not,” says St. Paul, “empty the cross of its power” (1 Cor 1:17)! Let us allow the grace of redemption to work in us now and change our lives.

And how and where do we tap on the redemptive power of the cross? The best place to do so is at Mass. John Paul II reminded us that the Mass we celebrate daily and the sacrifice on the Cross are one and the same! Going to Mass is like standing right at the foot of the Cross of our Savior, together with Mary, our Mother. Every day, Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross happens on our altars. Redemption is not a past event that we are simply remembering once every year during Holy Week; it is a power that is at work in our daily lives right now. This is why the mass is the center, the source and summit of our Christian lives.

How do we begin and end the Mass? How do we begin and end our prayers, almost everything that we do as Christians? By the sign of the Cross, isn’t it? Why? What are you actually saying when you make the sign of the cross?

When we make the sign of the Cross, we are professing that we belong to Christ, only and always to Christ. After all, he has bought us with the ultimate price (1 Cor 6:20), that is, the price of his death and resurrection. We profess faith in the Blessed Trinity, in whom we were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. By making the sign of the Cross, we profess that we are willing to allow the power of the Cross of Christ to change us and truly enable us to rise above our sins and sinful lifestyles.

Remember: for us Christians, the Cross is not defeat and death, but a source of blessings and true and renewed life!