GOOD FRIDAY HOMILY
Good Friday is about One Person and One Thing: Jesus Christ—and the Sacrifice He made for poor sinners. He was crucified on a Cross, willingly, though the world’s side of it was all forced, crooked and heinous upon Him. Yet did Jesus return hate with hate? No, He brought a love that conquers all hate and pride: This Love Crucified Arose. This Love in Him on Good Friday would bring and become a most-unexpected Victory. Unlike anyone saw coming, but only God foresaw it and carried it out. Divinity with humanity. A Man perfect-God perfect offering. A Holy Sacrifice. God saw this way of Sacrificial Love yes underline it {Sacrificial Love} to rescue humankind from eternal peril. God used Jesus’ Cross of Sacrifice it as a plan to swallow up death (1 Cor. 15) and to be an amazing offering for sin. Jesus’ Cross was an altar perfect for sacrifice for sin. Yours and mine.
What happened after Jesus laid down in death from that Cross? Revelation chapter 5 tells what Heaven celebrated—they celebrated a Victorious Sacrifice. Verse 8-12: “When Jesus had taken the scroll (of life to redeem humanity) they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them to be a kingdom to our God…serving our God.” And the angels sang; Worthy is the Lamb to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!.”
Indeed: They celebrated above THE Holy Sacrifice to Redeem the Human Race—in Jesus.
Good Friday is about One Person and One Thing: Jesus Christ—and the Sacrifice He made for poor sinners. But on this year in particular, I’ve noted how people (even Christian people) are taking Holy Week and Good Friday, and putting the attention on someone else or something else. That’s a mistake. I can’t go into details about this—but sure to say: We are not to use the Passion or Cross for our purposes—as to steer emotions and attention away to our causes. Let’s just keep our focus on the Sacrifice of Christ—it is enough. Surely Jesus’ Cross will bring healing to many areas or peoples trampled down or in sickness or war or injustice—but let’s not focus on one area to take away from the Victorious overall Sacrifice that it is. I knew a priest in my youth and he was vehement that Communism needed to be preached against at every turn. His Easter message—Jesus Risen is to be our model for fighting communism. His Christmas message—the anti-Communist Nativity. He drove us crazy with his misdirecting attention away from the main thing. I took notice of that being done this year in too many quarters. Thus, I preach strongly tonight that Good Friday is primarily about the One Person of Jesus Christ—and the Sacrifice He made for poor sinners. Do not become distracted of seeing this Person Jesus and His Jerusalem entry and His death on Good Friday as for anything but first as a Sacrifice for your sin. You desperately need this Sacrifice of Jesus. You need Him presently, and for your past, and for your future you. You are a sinner. Sins offend God—but Jesus provides a Sacrifice for you. It’s ongoing work for God to bring you to holiness and bring you home. You’ve got to come to terms with that utter need in our life. Jesus is there to help you become free from the clutches of sin and death. Forever. He’s meant to be a Savior via Sacrifice in you, doing so as a God Hero and Deliverer for you (and I). On Good Friday we need to be grateful for Him for the Sacrifice He made.
Let me use the Catholic Catechism to be ever blunt that Good Friday and Christ’ Death is all about Sacrifice. That’s the key word of Good Friday.
Testifying to the Truth, as Jesus would say, the part in the Catechism (#613-618) on the Catholic understanding of Christ’ Death gives 8 times the word of Sacrifice for it. 8 times. I quote from it. #1/ Christ’ death is both the definitive Paschal Sacrifice of the whole Hebrew Covenant hope in the Christ and # 2/ The Sacrifice of The New Covenant restoring mankind to communion with God. It goes on….#3/ Concerning His Death, the Sacrifice of Christ surpasses all other sacrifices, for it’s from the Father eternal and of the Son eternal made man #4/The suffering Servant makes himself an offering for sin and consummates His Sacrifice on The Cross.
So are you hearing it? So then why hail some political thing or some cause of the world thing to Christ’ Passion, when the Catechism says: Hey, it’s foremost and primarily a Sacrifice! Proclaim THAT. #5/ (From the Catechism on Christ’ Death) Christ’ sacrifice of love to the end confers value as redeeming, repairing, atoning and satisfying for us to God what is needed to be saved and rescued. #6/ No one but Him could take on all sin in history in such a redemptive sacrifice. #7/ Christ’ Sacrifice is the source of eternal salvation– the wood of the Cross merited justification for us. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Sacrifice.
And #8/ Our participation in Christ’ Sacrifice is crucial — that we become partners in the Paschal Mystery via Him and to deny our Self, take up our Cross and follow Him is the Way of Life—that the tree of Calvary become a tree of healing for us. What is the Mass, too, then? It is the Holy Sacrifice. Take note that only we Catholics and Orthodox value so highly the liturgical participation in the eternal Lamb of God Sacrifice. The others types of Christian churches don’t have it, nor are they likely n church tonight recalling Christ’ Sacrifice for all, nor were they last night recalling The Last Supper at Christ’ First Mass. Yet for us—it is key to our faith in Jesus.
Christ’ Body and Blood, His Love Crucified Arose IS the Lamb of God in the Revelation vision.
We Catholics celebrate it tonight and all year round. We know we are the holy city come down, as Revelation 20 says of the Church “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them.” (That’s verse 2 & 3. Then listen to what verses 22 and 29 say…) “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb….But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
What gets someone into the book of life or the scrolls of the blessed for heaven? It is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His Sacrifice makes us clean.
Sooooo—let’s not put anything less than the Sacrifice of Christ into the meaning of Good Friday and Jesus!
Good Friday is about One Person: Jesus Christ—and the Sacrifice He made for poor sinners—which is you (and me)—and that we have a Crossroads of Life experience. Ask: Do I need a present Savior and Sacrifice? If you say no or you are not sure, then you are heading soon to that Crossroad. Jesus wants you there for a decision of your will, or a revived, renewed decision of your life. Scriptures say that “He came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) That’s you without Him. Lost. St. said that the Cross of Christ is the only ladder on which to take and reach Heaven. Jesus said: I am the Bread of Life, eat this bread that the Son of Man gives you, and you will not perish. (John 6 ). So what are we doing here tonight? We are honoring the Sacrifice of the Lord, hearing the Word story of His Salvation, venerating the Cross, and supping of the Lamb of God Jesus in communion. It’s a good Good Friday, is it not?
End of Homily. Web extra.
Good Friday is about One Person: Jesus Christ—and the Sacrifice He made for poor sinners. Do you love His Cross of Sacrifice for you and the Blessed Sacrament for communion with you? He gives you a “clean” manner to accept His body and blood—in the Sacrament—which He instituted as the New Passover rite for us believers. To take the Sacrifice in. As the Bread of Life and the Blood that Saves. To recommit again to Jesus, in His Body, the Church.
Recommit to Jesus and into His Body, the Church. (1st Cor. 12:12-13, 27).
Love Him as The Bread of Life: John 6:27,30,32-34 Jesus said: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which I the Son of Man will give you. For it is on the Son of Man that God the Father has set his seal.” They asked him further, “What sign can you give us?… He said: It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I Am the Bread of Life. “Sir,” they begged him, “give us this bread always.” Jesus answered them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” This Bible verse describes what the Catholic life is meant to be—with us always getting in touch with Christ’ Love and Sacrifice for us, and His life within us.
Love Him as The Cleansing Blood: 1st John 1:7-9 [Jesus’ good friend John advises:] “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Indeed. We Catholics know our ongoing need for the Sacrifice of Christ’ Blood. His Blood covers our multitude of sins made that Christ had to bear on the Cross. Yet we plead for His Mercy with the cup of His Blood on the altar in the Sacrifice of the Mass. And He takes strong note of it. BECAUSE IT IS HIS SACRIFICE WE HAVE ENTERED—BODY AND BLOOD.
Easter Vigil Homily
The Four Women I admire at Good Friday and Easter. +
A painting of two of them and St. John carrying a wrapped Jesus to His tomb
I’d like to look at Calvary Friday and early Sunday Resurrection day in gazing upon four women who were lovingly present for Jesus in His time of Crucifixion and also showing up on Sunday morn to love Him. Easter IS about Jesus and His Resurrection Victory—so glory to His Name. And I think that pointing to these faithful four in His time of Dying and Rising glorifies Him.
Who are the Four Women I admire of the Gospel accounts? They were (1) Mary, the Mother of Jesus—(2) Salome, the mother of the apostles James and John (sons of thunder of Zebedee)—(3) Mary of Clopas (sister in law to Mary, mother of the other apostle James, spouse to Clopas), and (4) Mary Magdalene. All four Gospels record the presence of a group of women at Christ’ crucifixion. Some of the same ones, then, were in the first Easter scenes. All were there in love and also in great courage and conviction. We can take appreciation of that in this 2025 Triduum.
We would gather from the gospel accounts that other women were looking on from afar upon the Calvary scene, too. The 8th Station of the Cross mentions the presence of women along the Via Delorosa, along the streets to mourn for Jesus’ situation. A Scripture sometimes used for that is Luke. 23:28-31, 49. It’s the part when Jesus says: ‘Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children for the days ahead….” I suppose that when near the Calvary Hill, these women were stopped for getting any nearer, so they stood stood at a distance (in sight of The Cross) and saw Christ Jesus die. We know that Jesus had a large following of dear women among his disciples. I just thought that highlighting it would be for a nice homily. While the men apostles get the most attention in the Gospels, along with men disciples, it is very noticeable how Jesus was for women and how the women were for him. You catch this particularly on Good Friday and early Sunday morn. It was a time of intense emotion for everyone, but I am sure a lot for these women, especially the four closest to Jesus.
No slight to any men here. I’ll give an apostles homily and praises to men in another time. ☺
Luke 23’s account tells of women’s tears and cries, getting Jesus’ attention in His walk to Calvary. But Matthew and Mark’s Gospel names three of the special four (I am highlighting tonight for you) and John’s Gospel names the most obvious and fourth one of the special close women near the Cross. Matthew 27:55-56 proclaims: “There were also many women there…who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him (up close)…were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. In Mark’s Gospel (15:40-41) it notes as well of how Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and also one called Salome were there at the Cross scene. John’s Gospel mentions how Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, was there beneath the Cross as the central figure of vigilance at Calvary; and he mentions in John 19:25: “But standing by The Cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (Jn 19:25). So in the Bible we have the named Mary, Salome, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene as the sure final four women under the Foot of Jesus’ Cross at Golgotha. Salome is likely the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who are the apostles James and John—but there are some Biblical scholars who add her as a different figure, but I hold to her being the two apostles’ mother.
What a holy Final Four!
When you go on to the Resurrection accounts—you have three of these four women going back to the Tomb early on Sunday. Mary, Jesus’ mother is not mentioned among the tomb visitors, I’ll tell you why so in a few moments. But it’s really a courageous and loving thing they do again—three of the four—of wanting to love and mourn over Jesus more—even ready to face a fierce Roman guard at the tomb (at least that is what they were expecting, but they still brought spices as so to ask to honor Jesus’ body).
Who are these two Mary’s and the woman Salome who do this? Mary Magdalene is that great convert who had been healed by Jesus of some darkness in her, but now she is about as close to Jesus as the apostles are in His ministry. Like St. John the apostle, Mary Magdalene is known as someone who especially loved Jesus. That deep love helped her know Jesus better and to understand things pretty clearly. Like John, Mary of Magdala (Magdala is a place—a seaport on the Sea of Galilee) –Mary Magdalene was probably quite conversant with Mary, too, the Mother of Christ. Of course, Mary’s love for her Son Jesus was so attractive to them and admired.
Then there is Mary of Clopas. We find out from the rest of Scripture and some other sources that Jesus’ step-father Joseph had a brother, making him an uncle to Jesus. His name was Clopas (Cleopas/Alphaeus) and likely with Bethlehem connections, too—maybe even being in Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth and the Savior’s early months of life. Clopas’ wife was Mary. Mary was a common name, and named “of Clopas” by marriage. Of their children, one (at the least) became an apostle—so it concludes that Jesus had a close relative among his Twelve. Then we can surmise that it was an aunt of Jesus who was under the Cross that Good Friday—this Mary of Clopas. She was there to love and mourn Him. Her son James was in the Upper Room with most of the apostles at the Crucifixion time. At the Resurrection morning, James her son is also still in the Upper Room. She knows where. (Mary of Clopas’ husband is not named in any gospel account as being close to his wife during the Crucifixion, although he might very well have been there on The Hill nearby. Yet we hear of Clopas is a Gospel account of Easter Sunday as the dejected man on the road to Emmaus of whom the Risen Jesus meets, walks with, and then reveals to him His identity in the breaking of bread moment. What does this say? That Mary of Clopas saw the empty tomb, and later that day, her husband saw Jesus on the Road to Emmaus account, and later her son saw Christ n the locked Upper Room visit by the Risen Lord.)
Then there is the other women in the Crucifixion and Resurrection Stories. Her name is Salome. She was mother to the apostle John, the lone apostle to be there in Jesus’ final moments before death by crucifixion. Matthew’s Gospel says indeed that the mother of the sons of Zebedee was there (so that’s big James and John), while Mark’s gospel names a Salome as there—who was likely the same person. Salome would make it become two mothers of apostles who happen to be standing underneath the Cross of Christ and then later going to the tomb on that first light of Easter Sunday. Salome was mother of those two Galilean fishermen (the sons of thunder) who had worked under their father Zebedee, Salome’s husband. So this mother of St. John is the fourth woman under the Cross, and it is interesting to note, then, that St. John had his own mother nearby, even while he is being the main comfort to Mary, Jesus’ mother. In another family connection, Mary’s sister-in-law is there for Mary. That’s Mary of Clopas. The Blessed Mother was quite comforted to have this support of John and her sister-in-law (though a gospel calls her a sister, but it’s adelphē in the Biblical Greek word which means close family relative, not necessarily a sibling. It is Joseph’s brother’s wife.) Did you know all of this?
Mary of Nazareth, Joseph’s wife, and Jesus’ mother, is the fourth and main figure under the Cross of Christ. She is experiencing the fulfilled prophecy of Simeon of the pains she’d feel in her chest, ever so piercing, as her own Child gets nail pierced in front of her. It was excruciating for her. One thing we must know, though. She believed everything of Jesus. She totally believed that He was rise again. But first He had to go through this gruesome death, and she would be there to help him do it by her loving face at Him. He’ll go from dying to rising Son.
We don’t know exactly for where Mary was on that first Easter morn. Mary is not mentioned in the first appearances of Jesus Risen. Yet for her, she already knew He was risen, even late on Friday she had understood, and probably had a mystical encounter with Jesus Risen before anyone else, even that Good Friday night. The Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus are really quite united, you know, and inseparable. So, Mary sees Jesus but it’s not in the Gospels as a first sighting. Yet consider her Magnificat at the start of Luke’s gospel as a possible Bible proof, for she sings: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” That first line sounds like a resurrection message. The Risen Jesus would be “great” and reason for “rejoicing” for her. Now she goes on in her song: “For He has looked upon His lowly servant and blessed me… all generations shall call me blessed, as the Lord has done great things and Holy is His Name.” That does sound a lot like a Resurrection witness to me.
So we have four women who have been there for Jesus at his Crucifixion and His Resurrection early appearances.
This family support who are gathered under the Cross for Jesus remind me of the many funerals I have done, or even of Last Rites I have done in ministry, where I see the close relatives gathered for their loved one in time of dire situation or in time of loss. That is the Calvary connection.
Then there’s the Easter connection. This celebration of close people in Jesus’ Victory remind me of weddings and anniversaries and triumphs in people’s lives when close family and dear friends are the ones who are a victor or the blessed person we all get to see. At a sports victory, I noted how the athlete wanted first to celebrate it with their family and closest friends, not with media or fans. But it was these ones who had been behind them all the way for years, right there with them. I see the Victory of Christ as like that. He goes to see his closest ones: look, I won!!
Jesus would have liked how these four women were with him to the end, and it was lovely that he included them in his Empty Sepulchre discovery. Of course, they discovered it (the three women) because they had gone to the Tomb first. Mary would have been waiting for her Son to make his revelation known to her. Surely He came to her and Our Lady of Victory rejoiced in God her Savior, Jesus, once her little baby boy.
In my main point of this Easter Vigil homily, I wanted to point out the strength of women in times of challenge and testing and trial. Look at the three Mary’s and Salome in the scene of Jesus’ Dying as a model of how strong woman disciples can be and are today. See them continue on into the Easter story. How grateful we should be as sons or daughters, or as members of the Church, to see such types of women of faith helping us through. It’s great then to hear their names as the first witnesses of a rising by Jesus. It’s a nice reward for their care for Him.
Later as the disciples gathered and recounted their Risen Christ stories, surely these three Mary’s and Salome were right in the middle of them, and likely at Pentecost these four were all together with the other believers for the outpouring Jesus would give to His Body, the Church, and birth her. Mary would be the main one in that Pentecost scene.
We know that the hearts of these women surely have born a lot of sorrow, grief, pain, compassion and love in all of their caring for us.
It’s nice when women like that can get a good reward for their steadfast lives. We honor you women of faith!
Easter Sunday Homily
RESURRECTION The Empty Tomb is a Sign of Freedom. Jesus Arose—so now all followers of Him get a new start in faith.
To be baptized into Christ’ death is to go into the tomb with Him and come out with Him in Risen life.
We go through Good Friday and onto Easter in one liturgy this Holy Week. One key Scripture to help us to understand this Paschal Mystery is in Romans chapter 6.4-5. “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
Application: What Living in Freedom Means
St. Paul was able to understand fully the conversion into a fulfilled Judaism (being a Christian) by how we are now imparted a freedom through our receiving Christ Jesus into our being. He writes in Galatians 5:13 (Living Word translation) “For you now have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, as a license to sin, but as a gift of God for a new life back to what God had intended all along for humanity. You now have that “free”choice always—to gain the life of a son/daughter of The Lord—that you could begin again through love to serve one another, rather than as taking wrongful advantage of others (the ill liberty of choosing sin).”
We can get out of the dark and into the light of Jesus.
Jesus’ resurrection set us free “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23. This is a Forever Plan of God for you. Are you being born again or just still living in the flesh like any non-believer?
Our sins separated us from God, and it’s where we started in this world–in Original Sin. Jesus is come as a relationship back to God for us, and in Him being the only perfect sacrifice capable of bridging the gap between us and God. He is Real.
In St. Paul’s understanding, he writes of Romans chapters 6, 7 and 8 as the person in a process of re-creation or the reborn life in Christ Jesus. “But God be thanked— that though you were falling as slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart to find deliverance from it. And having been set free from sin, you became anew into righteousness.”—Romans 6:17-18 Then in Romans 7 he spells out the dilemma: “Why do I do the sins that I do? How can I gain strength to be set free?” St. Paul says then in Romans 8 that the answer is how that in Jesus we can gain the interior help of the Holy Spirit, in a strength to live in accord with Christ, who is in us. “You, however, are changed, you are simply not just in the realm of the flesh (like an animal) but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you! It means that you belong to God in Christ Jesus and in a living way via His Spirit….But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. (Something more is going on in you!) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[ his Spirit who lives in you.”
What does the Resurrection Mystery and Ascension/Pentecost Mysteries do for you? You’ll have eternal life in your soul with God from now on and your bodies will have resurrection from the dead one day. It’s a promise of God. The John 6 chapter on the Eucharist has much teaching on it.
Jesus’ resurrection gives us the freedom to approach God as adopted sons and daughters of the Most High. We are won back to God! In each Eucharist in our Sunday assembly, we celebrate who we are. The host is presented and the words are said: “The Body of Christ. “ And you say “Amen” to the Mystery of Christ among us.
Happy Easter.