Homily: April 18, 2025, Good Friday.

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“…there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.” 

“Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured…”

I picked out these two phrases in today’s first reading to help us reflect deeper into the significance of what we are celebrating today.

God spoke these words, through prophet Isaiah, some 700 years before it was all fulfilled. It described Jesus as the suffering servant, bruised, beaten and abandoned.

If we were all there at the scene, looking at Jesus, beaten and bloodied, would we be able to look at Him? Would we be attracted to Him?

I am quite sure we would all feel very uneasy, uncomfortable and might even walk out if we were to witness the full condition of Jesus suffering on the cross. It is not at all a pretty sight.

Condemned as a criminal, stripped of dignity, mocked as a failure - Who would be drawn to someone so humiliated, badly broken and bloodied face?

Yet today, we want to look intensely at the crucifix, with deep veneration, adoration and gratitude, because it is our infirmities he bore, our sufferings he endured. If Jesus did not take the blows and beatings for us, we would be the ones to bear the torture and the suffering. But can we bear it? Are we able to carry the cross that Jesus carried? It is the cross of our sins, not His. We are the criminals, not Him.

Our sins hammered the nails through His hands and feet, our pride pricked His sacred head with the thorny crown, our immorality cut through His pure flesh, and our disobedience and rejection betrayed and broke His heart.

Yet, “by His wounds we are healed.”

He was beaten down so that we can stand tall. His flesh was torn so that our souls are kept whole. The intense pain he suffered from man brought us peace with God. His short life on earth exchanged for us eternal life in heaven.

Today, let us look closely again at Jesus on the cross. His appearance is not attractive because our sins are ugly. But I invite you to keep gazing at Jesus, and see divine, unconditional love and mercy flowing through every of His wounds. The cross of Christ contains all the love of God.

Can you see it?

Can you feel it?

Good Friday is good because it is the day God demonstrated His love for us with His life. He gave His life for us with His death. God is good. Amen.


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