Daily Reflection Good Friday

On this Good Friday, when once again we the people of God contemplate the great mysteries of our salvation in the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection, let us not concentrate so much on all that Christ endured for our sakes, important as all that is, but rather more on what Jesus told Martha was the one thing necessary. For Jesus did not accept death on a cross because the Father demanded it of him nor because he felt he must or that it was in some way his duty. For as he told the Pharisees, who refused to listen to him, he and the Father were one; that he could do only what he saw the Father doing (Jn 5:19). And that which he saw the Father doing was love. It was from love alone that Jesus gave himself for us as it was out of love alone that the Father gave his son to us (Jn 3:16). It is that same love that God the Father and the Lord Jesus long to give to us in its fulness, that perfect love that castes out all fear. The one thing necessary.
 
If we would seek, through prayer, to surrender to that love, accepting it fully by dying to ourselves, or more accurately, to the “self” and all it seeks for itself and thus all it fears it will not get, seeking to accept everything and everyone as somehow God’s gift to us, then, like Jesus, we would come to embrace our cross with joy finally realizing that God offers it to us out of love and love alone, if we would but see. We would become unafraid because we would trust only in God no matter what.
 
Perhaps this year as we contemplate the Lord’s passion, a way toward accepting that perfect love could be through forgiveness. Although not in the liturgy this year, the first of Jesus’ seven last words on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” found only in Luke’s gospel account, can help us to forgive one another. Jesus forgave his executioners as well as everyone else, ourselves included, because he loved us all. That love of God for us is not because we are worthy, not because we could ever deserve it or earn it in any way, not because we are good or holy or righteous in any way. God’s love for us is simply God’s gift to us sinners because that is the only thing God can give because God is love. God’s love alone makes us worthy. That is what God’s forgiveness is.
 
That love freely given, if freely accepted, can transform our hearts and our lives. A lack of forgiveness keeps us from being able to accept the love of God. If you have difficulty forgiving, it is because you are trying to do it yourself. God will enable you to forgive even the greatest offenses, because forgiveness does not mean denying that great harm may have been done. Let God do it for you because we do not have that power in ourselves. Pray every day to get over your resistance to forgive, whatever the reason. Pray every day for the one you seem to be unable to forgive. Try to see them as wounded and lost and in terrible neediness and darkness. Try to see that they did not know what they were doing. See also any role you may have played in causing this enmity and seek to also forgive yourself. You needn’t tell them you have forgiven them nor is there any need to reestablish a relationship with them (especially if they abused you). Your forgiving them is not for them, it is for you. You will know when you have finally found forgiveness (we pray for it not to convince God to give us the grace since God has already given it to us- we pray that we will overcome our pride and finally accept it), because you will feel a great weight lifted from your shoulders, a great freedom and peace that is unmistakable. For you will have experienced that love God has for you and for the one you could not forgive. As Isaiah told us, “Then your light shall burst forth like the dawn and your wound shall quickly be healed! Then you shall cry out and God will answer you, ‘Here I am!”