Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
Homily for the Good Friday 2025 at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta.
Readings: Is 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16,5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42
Good Friday compels us to stand on the side of the suffering
Dear friends,
“My God, my God why have you abandoned me?” This cry of despair and abandonment that Jesus uttered on the cross sums up the sentiments of the day we Christians call Good Friday. It is quite ironic and incomprehensible that the hardest day for the people of faith should be called a good day.
The crucifixion appears to be an unmitigated disaster, a complete defeat and a cruel end for Jesus. He was betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured and killed like a criminal. However, for those who discern the truth, it was through the cross that the greatest love was revealed. It was not evil that had the upper hand. It was God’s unflinching fidelity, his unconditional love for the world in Jesus that brought about the triumph of love over hatred, good over evil.
With the eye of faith, we can recognize the true meaning of Good Friday. For this was the hour of glory that Jesus had spoken about; this was the climax to the life of a humble Messiah who came to serve and not to be served; the prophet who resisted all forms of evil; and the supreme high priest who made himself completely like us in our weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
The Gospel story presents a stark contrast between the imperial model represented by Pilate and the kingdom vision of Jesus. It was a dramatic scene. Pilate mounts on his throne was totally in control and the epitome of worldly power. Jesus on the other hand is totally powerless and vulnerable. His hands are bound, his head is crowned with thorns and the purple mantle is a mockery of his kingship. The scene is a striking contrast of power and vulnerability, prestige and wretchedness, fame and ignominy, success and failure
Yet there was something beyond the naked eye for those who discern the truth. Just as the dying Jesus assures the repentant thief of God’s eventual triumph, here the kingdom vision also shines through the darkness of hate, mob justice and hysteria. Here it is Jesus who judges and rejects Pilate’s imperial ideology built on violence, dominance and exclusion. “All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.” These words express a vision of Gospel community working towards the fulfilment of God’s plan for the world.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Jesus’ death on a cross, is truly the expression of the “wisdom of God”. God breaks the grip of scapegoating by stepping into the place of a victim. God is willing to die for us, to bear our sin because we desperately need deliverance from our propensity to violence. In Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, God has reset the cycle of history. He has set in motion the victory of love over hatred, solidarity over scapegoating and violence, social reconciliation over rivalry among opposing factions. He has enabled us to build a new future based on the good of all with the very people whom we regard as outsiders and enemies.
In the world where might is right, where the strong exert their power without regard for the rights and dignity of the weak, we cannot be unmoved. We cannot be indifferent to the cry of despair and abandonment that is being uttered daily by the victims of injustice, oppression, war and conflict. We think particularly of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan and Gaza where death, starvation, cruelty and agony are the daily occurrence. Good Friday compels us to stand on the side of the suffering and act on their behalf.
As Christians, we have an opportunity in the upcoming election where we must put the command to serve and to love one another and especially the most vulnerable among us at the heart of our society. We must bring the Christian inspired values of decency, fairness, justice, compassion, openness in public discourse and policy against fear, indifference and hardness of the heart.
Jesus’s arms were flung wide open on the cross in total surrender and vulnerability. This gesture of apparent defeat, on the one hand, symbolises the gathering of our sins, failures and fears. Yet on the other, it signifies God’s willingness to embrace and transform all that is broken within us. The cross or rather the crucifix is no longer a symbol of death, but of love and life. With him, there is no path to glory that sidesteps humility, surrender, and sacrificial love; no permission to secure my prosperity at the expense of another’s suffering and no excuse for not telling truth to power.
As we venerate the cross, let us live by its wisdom and power. Let us build a new future of humanity rooted in the reconciliation of Christ. May we be strengthened to walk humbly in the footsteps of the Master, who “through suffering became the source of our salvation.”
