114. Good Friday (III)

Meditations no. 160 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The holocaust of Jesus Christ on the Cross is renewed in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Et inclinato capite, tradidit spiritum, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

Jesus has breathed his last His disciples had so often heard him say: meus cibus est… , my food is to do the will of him that sent me and to bring his work to fulfilment. He has done so to the end, patiently, humbly, and without holding anything back… Oboediens usque ad mortem; he was obedient unto death, even death on a Cross!

But Christ’s desire to redeem was not yet satisfied. St John relates how the soldiers on Calvary received orders to break the legs of those who had been crucified. This was to hasten their death so that the bodies might not remain on the Cross during the Sabbath, which was a very solemn day; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers opened his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. In this gesture of the Love of God who gives the very last drop of his blood, the Church has seen a sign of her own birth.

St Augustine comments that the Evangelist made use of a well-chosen word in not saying that the soldier “wounded” or “struck” his side or some similar expression, but rather “opened”. In this way he gives us to understand that there the door to life was opened, and from that door poured forth the sacraments of the Church, without which no one enters into true Life. That blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins; that water made the cup of salvation more soothing … Oh death, which gives life to the dead! Is there anything purer than this blood? Is there any wound more health-giving than this wound? … For just as the first woman was formed from the side of the sleeping Adam, and was called life and mother of the living, so also this second Adam, bowing down his head, slept on the Cross, so that his spouse might be formed and born from his own side.

In the Mass we relive the drama of Calvary, which I would dare to describe as the first, the original Mass, celebrated by Jesus Christ. As he did on the Cross,

Christ offers himself to God in the Holy Mass, being both Priest and Victim. One and the same is the Victim, and he who now offers himself through the ministry of the priests is the same who at that time offered himself on the Cross. Only the manner of offering himself is different. On the Cross Jesus suffered death, with the real shedding of his blood; on the altar, because of the glorified state of his human nature, “death no longer has dominion over him”, and so the shedding of Blood is impossible.

As we meditate on the fact that Jesus Christ is immolated for us every day in the Mass, we see very clearly the need to be well prepared to attend this Holy Sacrifice. We should ask for a living faith in these moments, because we are drawing near to the mysterium fidei, to the Holy Eucharist; because we are about to participate in our Lord’s Pasch, which sums up and brings about the mercies of God among men.

Our Lord’s wounds, through which the very last drop of his blood was shed, are our refuge.

The New Testament speaks frequently of the Blood of Christ to help us understand the limitless generosity of the Son of God, who gave his last breath of life for the salvation of souls. As our Lord liked to put it, the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

From the moment sin entered the world at the beginning of history, all men were captives of the devil and served him and those who were his. But now they have been ransomed from that captivity. They could sell themselves into slavery, but they could not ransom themselves. Then the Redeemer came and paid the price: he shed his blood and bought the whole earth with it.

Our Lord has given his life for each one of us, as we are reminded by St Peter: You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish: the blood which streamed from his body, lacerated by the scourging: the blood which poured forth from the wounds to his head caused by the crown of thorns; the blood of his wounds, opened anew as he was brutally stripped of his garments; the blood which flowed from his hands and feet as they were pierced by the nails, and which drenched the wood of the Cross. And finally, when it seemed there was not a drop left in his veins, a lance opened his side, and out flowed blood and water.

Our Lord’s wounds, from which his Precious Blood flowed, will be a calm refuge for us whenever we feel wretched or afflicted; because as our Founder has written, we too will experience suffering. When we truly give ourselves to God, when we dedicate ourselves to the Lord, at times he allows us to experience sorrow, and also loneliness, hostility, calumny, libel and mockery, both from within and from without. Perhaps he lets us be called crazy and considered fools, for he wants to fashion us in his image and likeness.

Then, while contemplating Jesus’ Most Holy Humanity, we come to discover his wounds, one by one. And in these moments of passive purification, painful, strong, and filled with bitter-sweet tears which we try to hide, we will feel drawn to enter into each of those wounds to purify ourselves, to rejoice in this redeeming Blood, and be strengthened. We go there like the dove which, as Scripture says, hides from the storm in a crevice of the cliff.

When the flesh seeks to recover its lost rights, or worse, when pride acts up, go to Christ’s wounds! Go there whichever way you prefer, my son, summoning all the love you can, both human and divine… and place it in our Lord’s wounds. This is to seek union, to experience brotherhood with Christ, to be his kinsman, a son of the same Mother, because it is she who has brought us to Jesus.

In Christ’s wounds we are safe. Drenched in his redeeming Blood, enraptured with God, we have nothing to fear: For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

We should respond to our Lord’s generosity by giving our life for others.

Lord, by the suffering of Christ your Son you have saved us all from the death we inherited from sinful Adam. By the law of nature we have borne the likeness of his manhood. May the sanctifying power of grace help us to put on the likeness of our Lord in heaven.

The Letter to the Hebrews shows us the way to respond fully to Jesus Christ’s total sacrifice. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

The best way to respond to Christ’s sacrifice can be summarized in one phrase: We must give our life for others. That is the only way to live the life of Jesus Christ and to become one and the same thing with him. We will share in his life to the degree that we have a big heart to love God and love the others. Our Father said on one occasion: I often ask our Lord to give me a heart like his own: in the first place so I can fill myself more with him, and then so I can love everyone, without ever grumbling, but understanding and forgiving other people’s defects, because I can’t forget how much God has put up with from me.

We will learn to love other people by imitating the self-giving of Christ, who loved me and gave himself up for me, Feel in your souls, our Founder insists, this blessed fraternity, which comes down to really loving each other, even more than if we belonged to the same family - which in fact we do, because we are all children of God, washed and purified in his blood and called with an identical vocation.

It means making life pleasanter for the others, sacrificing our own legitimate preferences if there is the chance that others might find them even slightly off-putting. When I preach that we have to make ourselves into a soft carpet for the others to walk on, I am not simply being poetic: it has to be a reality! It’s hard, as sanctity is hard: but it’s also easy, because, I insist, sanctity is within everyone’s reach.

If we truly want to respond to Jesus Christ’s immense love for us, we should each feel within ourselves the sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, the anxiety for all the churches, which so weighed on St Paul’s heart: a loving solicitude, ever-vigilant, always concerned about other people’s spiritual and material well-being. Jesus has given his life for them. So we can never have enough affection and concern for one another, because our generosity, even if it were total, would be very little compared to the infinite and loving generosity of the God-Man, who offered himself in sacrifice to save us, giving even the last drop of his blood, the last breath in his body.

Our Blessed Lady, who shared so intimately in the Sacrifice of the Cross, will obtain for us from God the grace to be purified by the blood of her Son, and to make ourselves a holocaust in the service of one another. Then, our Father tells us, you will be able to cooperate with everyone and so contribute to the apostolic work: you will be there with the swiftness and effectiveness with which blood rushes to a wound, in the same way as the blood of Christ has rushed to our wounds to heal them and to give us life.