29th March 2009 :: 5th Sunday in Lent
People throughout time have been troubled by the apparent silence of God as he watched his Son suffer and die. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane sweated blood as his passion fast approached. His prayer to God was that of Son to Father, to remove the cup of suffering away from him. His cry on the Cross the following day expressed clearly how he felt, 'my God, my God, why have you deserted me? When Jesus needed his Father the most, he seemed aloof and far away. This God whom Jesus had borne witness to, the one Jesus addressed as 'Abba', or Father, was nowhere to be seen. But nonetheless Jesus on both occasions recovers and says, 'your will be done', and 'Father into your hands I commit my Spirit'.
It is pure speculation to describe what was going on in the heart of God as he accepted the total fidelity and love of the Son. How the Divine Nature must have been rent asunder. Jesus who as the Creed describes was eternally begotten of the Father consented to become Man and lived among us. In the years of his living on earth he wanted to show the enormity of God's love for his people. At first he met with success, here was someone who was new, who healed people. But then the voices of envy began to rise and he was rejected and then betrayed by one of his own. When the world passed sentence on Jesus Christ, it was passing sentence on God. However on the Cross the true nature and face of God was revealed, a God who was willing to go the extra mile, a God who not only talked the talk, but walked the walk.
In the last two thousand years people have seen in the Cross of Christ a message of hope and solidarity as they are forced to carry their own crosses. In the Cross lifted up from the earth all people are drawn to the feet of the God Man, whose Cross joins heaven to earth and encompasses the universe. As we begin next Sunday to celebrate the Church's holiest week let the Cross once more teach us, and let us too like the Greeks mentioned in today's gospel 'ask to See Jesus'. Amen.
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Homilies Archive
17nd May 2009
26th April 2009
3rd Sunday of Easter
12th April 2009
Easter Sunday
9th April 2009
Holy Thursday
29th March 2009
5th Sunday in Lent
22nd March 2009
4th Sunday in Lent
17th March 2009
St Patrick's Day
15th March 2009
3rd Sunday in Lent
8th March 2009
2nd Sunday in Lent
1st March 2009
1st Sunday in Lent
25th February 2009
Ash Wednesday
22nd February 2009
8th February 2009
1st February 2009
25th January 2009
18th January 2009
11th January 2009
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
6th January 2009
Feast of the Epiphany
4th January 2009
2008 HOMILIES ARCHIVE
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