Good Friday
April 14, 2006


In the village of Town and Country, there is a huge debate going on about a cross. It seems that a church has asked for a variance of the local zoning laws to erect a cross in front of their church. The request seems like a simple thing, a normal thing, something easily done. Until you find out the size of the cross. The one they want to build is 93 feet tall. That is a pretty darned big cross. And though I do not know the reasons why they wanted one which is that tall, I can speculate. That they hope the cross will say is this: This is what matters the most. This is what we want to be the center of our lives. Nothing else matters but the cross. And, we want to teach the world that you cannot ignore the cross in your life. We want our cross to say that. We want our lives to say that. That is why we need a 93 foot tall cross.

If you had to erect a cross on your front lawn that would show the world how important the cross is in your life - how big would it be? If they passed a law in Normandy or Bel-Nor or Greendale, saying you must display a cross proportionate to it’s place in your faith life, would anyone be able to see it?

As I ask that question, I am aware that there are two types of ‘crosses’ in people’s lives – those that are chosen and those that come unbidden. The unbidden ones arrive as a part of the vagaries of life. A routine doctor visit becomes a life altering event. Your child is born with downs syndrome. A vehicle accident takes the life of a family member. A spring storm devastates a whole neighborhood. These are the crosses we are invited to offer to God in love –to let our acceptance and surrender become a part of the redemptive suffering of the servant of God we heard of in the first reading today. Though these crosses are very real and very much a part of our journey in faith, the cross of Good Friday is not that kind of cross.

In John’s account of the passion, the cross that Jesus endures is a chosen experience. John’s Jesus is not an unwilling victim, caught in the wrong time and the wrong place. From the beginning of his Gospel, John has Jesus journeying toward his HOUR – the moment when the world would see the Son of Man lifted up. The cross is a deliberate choice of Jesus – ‘to push the divine love into the face of human suffering.’ The cross stands before us as a choice – by Jesus and by us, to let God’s love inflame and imbue more and more of the world.

· The cross of Good Friday is the cross that a couple embraces when they look each other in the eye and proclaim to the church that they will be a visible sign to the world about God’s love. And it is the cross when that same couple looks each other in the eyes on Sunday morning, with the kids yelling and fighting and their bodies are tired – and they say: “Let’s get up and get our family to mass.”

· The cross of Good Friday is the cross that forces your heart and mind to read the paper and understand the suffering that happens because people do not have access to a decent education, and then to run for election for the school board so that something different might happen.

· The cross of Good Friday is the cross that refuses to transmit the pain of rejection or betrayal that you just experienced from the family that is supposed to be there for you – but instead continues to seek a way to love the family members into new life.

· The cross of Good Friday is the cross that confronts your senators and politicians about decisions that would destroy our respect for life. It is the cross that writes letters and advocates for those without a voice and refuses to give in to discouragement – but keeps pushing love into all the situations of the world.

There are two types of crosses in our faith journey. Sometimes both of them can seem 93 feet tall. Tonight would have us bring both of those to the One who taught us all about carrying our cross. In a few moments, we will have the chance to venerate the cross. You may genuflect before it, kiss, touch it, sign yourself before it – however it seems best for you to unite your cross with the wood of HIS cross. Because ultimately, it does not matter how big or small our crosses are – what matters is that we bear them and choose them as did Jesus. Behold the wood of the cross, on which is hung the savior of the world…