Category Archives: Good Friday

When we are facing good times, do we ever think about God? Some people seem to have forgotten about God in the midst of good times, happy times, or when they have attained something and are caught up with the festivities and celebrations. But when we are faced with disaster or tragedy, some would begin to question: “Why did this happen?” or “How could God allow this evil to take place?” or even “Where is God? Why is He not helping now?” Some may even begin to lose faith in God, thinking that God has abandoned them or is not going to help them come out of their predicament. But isn’t it strange? Some of us don’t give thanks to God when good things occur, but we begin to complain or blame God when bad things happen.

Today we celebrate Good Friday, where God gives us an answer to our complaints about human suffering and pain. Here is God who chose to be like us as Jesus Christ; who walked in our shoes, who shares our joys and sorrows and experiences our pain and suffering. Here lies the creator of the universe; now on the cross, He lies dead, crucified by our own sinfulness, our indifference, our ambitions, our greed, and our selfishness. God is with us not only when we are good, but also with us in our sinfulness even though He has no sin.

Sometimes, we hear parents telling their children: “I will love you if you are good.” or “If you are naughty, I will not love you.” Such children begin to think that their parents love them only if they are good, and that love is conditional and a reward for goodness, and that love needs to be earned. But God shows us that love is given to both saint and sinner. God loves us even while we were still sinners. The cross is proof of this. The cross is the symbol of God’s unconditional love, since Jesus died on the cross for all, not only for those who are good.

Today, let us give thanks to God for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save us from our sins, because of His immense love for us. Let us also set aside our pride, ego and prejudice, and learn to love others unconditionally, just as God loves us unconditionally.

Each and every one of us have experienced suffering in one way or another at certain points of our lives. We can try to deny it, we can try to hide it, we can try to find ways and means to distract ourselves from it, we can even try to fool ourselves into thinking that it is okay or an illusion, but the fact is, suffering is a very real thing.

But one significant event brought suffering to a different level and meaning. God died on the cross. God allow himself to be crucified on the cross for our sake. He died on the cross to redeem us and to save us from our sins, as what Isaiah reminds us in the first reading: “And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrow he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low. Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.” Thus, we should not see suffering as a bad thing, we should not think that God does not understand what we are going through, since Jesus suffered and died for all of us because of His immense love for us.

When we become aware of the significance and the power of the cross, we become witnesses of Jesus. We become more sensitive, compassionate and understanding to the needs and sufferings of others. Jesus, while suffering on the cross, did not forget about others. He reached out in love to all around him. For his enemies, he asked for forgiveness; for his mother, he found a new home by giving her to his beloved disciple, and in doing so, giving her to all of us who are like that beloved disciple; for his disciples, he made sure that they would continue to support each other. Thus, let us set aside our anger, self-pity, hatred, pride, prejudices and bitterness, so that we may give ourselves in love and selflessness to others, just as Jesus did for all of us. Let us, as the second reading remind us, “be confident, then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help.”

Our God is with us at all times. Don’t care whether it is good times or bad times, sickness or health, joy or sorrow, life or death, God is there. Today, we are reminded of God who hangs on the cross. The cross was a tool of humiliation, of suffering, of slow and painful death. Extremely bad people were the ones normally crucified on the cross. But here, we have God who hangs on the cross.

Why did God hang on the cross? It is precisely because of His immense love for us. He wants to save us from our sins. He is crucified by our own sinfulness, our indifference, our ambitions, our greed, our selfishness, our inability to forgive, our pride, our anger, etc. The cross is transformed from an instrument of death, to a symbol of God’s unconditional love. The cross shows that God is even prepared to take the place of the worst kind of sinners by being executed like a criminal, so that we can be saved from our sins.

Are we willing to carry our crosses and die to our sins? Are we willing to wholeheartedly and enthusiastically love God and people, regardless of whether they have been good or bad to us? God died on the cross to save all of us. Are we humble enough to follow His example?