Holy Friday
1 Peter 4/12-19; John 6/48-59
I want to meditate with you on the Passion of Christ focusing on the following five points:
- It is the Passion of Christ in all its being. The very fact of the Incarnation, that is, God the Father sending His only begotten Son to become Emmanuel, is the same Passion. The Son leaves everything behind, His Glory, the Kingdom of His Father and dwells with people, with sinners, simply because He loved us and wanted to free us from slavery.
- It is the Passion of His body, His Holy and Immaculate body, His body which represents human nature, but that, which is perfect whereas ours is imperfect. He invites us to perfection and bears all His passions for our salvation and our renewal.
- It is the Passion of His soul, the Passion of the One who came to fulfill the will of His Father, the Father who was in direct communication with Him day and night. During the day He used to meet the Father through the people and their passions, and at night in prayer and silence He was in union and communion with Him.
- It is the Passion of humanity. Jesus carries through His personal passions, the passions of all humanity, of all history, even those arising from the rejection of God. He carries in His Passion the sickness and the sick, the remote and the near, those who search for Him in purity to meet Him, to know Him and to become His disciples.
- The Passion of salvation. It is the Passion that brings salvation, not the Passion just for the Passion, but for the salvation of men. It is the Passion that leads us to the dynamism of life and resurrection. Let us thank Him for His Passions, let us present ours in front of His cross and let us bear His in our bodies so as to become His disciples. Amen.
Nicosia, 13 April 2012
† Youssef Soueif
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus
13/04/2012