Good Friday 2008

1. We have read and heard the account of the passion of Jesus given us by John the evangelist. I continue to be drawn to the dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate in the Praetorium. The chief priests had already determined that Jesus would have to die because he had claimed to be the Son of the Father. In the garden, at the time of his arrest, when they said they were looking for Jesus the Nazarene, he replied more than once “I am he. I have told you that I am he.” Ears attuned to the Holy Scriptures will hear an echo of Jesus’ words, also recorded in the 4^th Gospel, which had earlier infuriated the Jews, “Before ever Abraham was, I am.” And again behind these words, the voice of God identifying himself to Moses: “I am who I am”, the revelation of Yahweh, the divine name.

2. The Church acknowledges Jesus as the Son of the Father. We profess our faith in him as we do in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our faith is based on the witness of the Son of God. The Church’s teaching on faith and on the moral life is constructed upon Jesus as God’s definitive and final Word to human beings. There is no further revelation to come until the Lord comes in glory. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit, who was sent to bring us into all the truth, leads us in a process of enlightenment, greater understanding and consolation. For that reason, it is wrong to treat Jesus as simply a respected even admirable but in the last analysis time-conditioned religious master or teacher. It is wrong to treat the constant teaching of the Church on faith and morals as just a point of view. If that constant teaching of the Church has a claim to truth in our eyes, if the Gospel of Jesus is the message of salvation for us, it is all because Jesus was the Son of God. And for this he died, “We have a law, and according to the Law, he ought to die, because he has claimed to be the son of God.”

3. But the Jews had no power to execute him. “We are not allowed to put a man to death”, they said. So they sent him to the Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate. For his part, Pontius Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and that there were no grounds to execute him. But for political reasons, he needed to find a pretext. If he could prove that Jesus claimed to be a king, and therefore a threat to Rome, he could order his execution. “It is better for one man to die for the people”, Caiaphas the High Priest had said beforehand, with words whose import he could not have imagined.

4. So the dialogue between Pontius Pilate and Jesus begins with a direct question: Are you the king of the Jews? However, this line of questioning soon proves futile and leaves Pilate frustrated. Jesus admits to being a king, but his kingdom is not of this world. His kingship is all about the truth. Listen to how Jesus answers Pilate: “Yes, I am a king. I was born for this. I came into the world for this; to bear witness to the truth, and all who are on the side of the truth listen to my voice.” This answer perplexed Pilate even more. With words which are surprisingly contemporary, he could only mutter, “Truth, what is that?” He knew he had no case. But he was a weak man and handed over Jesus to be crucified.

5. So Jesus came to bear witness to the truth. His kingdom is not of this world, but is a kingdom of the truth. The truth that Jesus bore witness to is the truth of himself as the Son of the Father. He himself is the Truth, and said of himself, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Those who are part of this kingdom are on the side of the truth and listen to his voice. The greatest challenge we face as the Catholic Church today is to bear witness to the truth. Sadly we fail to bear witness to the truth sometimes because of our own weakness and self-interest and sin. When Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews with the words “Here is your king”, the chief priests were not slow to answer. “We have no king but Caesar”, they chorused. What a tragedy is hidden in these words!  In an instant they turned the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the faith of Moses and the prophets, the faith David and the Kings, into a pathetic religion of the state. “We have no king but Caesar.”

6. My dear brothers and sisters, I am not talking simply of the past here. I am not talking about present-day China. I am talking about here and now. We are in danger of allowing our faith to be turned into a religion of the state, a religion and a moral code acceptable to those in power, a religion and a moral code shaped by legislation and regulation. My dear brothers and sister, we cannot sleepwalk into this. We cannot be complicit in this. We need to stand up and face the persecutor, as Jesus stood up and faced his accusers, and bear witness to the truth.

7. After Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers to be ill-treated, scourged and crowned with thorns, he presented him to the crowd with the mocking words, “Here is your king”. Sometimes the truth is twisted and denied by sin or by violence. Sometimes those who bear witness to the truth are mocked and derided like Jesus, the truth of God.

8. And so they took him and crucified him. A notice was fixed to the cross. “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.” They killed our beloved Jesus because of the truth. Sometimes the truth is put to death. But Pontius Pilate’s notice said more than it meant to say. In his death Jesus was truly King. In his death he was victorious. Those who are on his side have every reason, then, to hope to share in his victory over sin and violence, and continue to bear witness to the truth.

St. Joseph’s, Clarkston

21^st March 2008