By Agnes Chai
KOTA KINABALU — Good Friday is a day of contradictions, preached Archbishop John Wong who presided at the Good Friday Mass Apr 2 at Sacred Heart Cathedral to a 50 percent packed Cathedral and parish hall. The Mass was also broadcast live via YouTube.
He said, Christ, who knew no sin, was put to death for our sins. Christ, who is life, was put to death. The Cross, the instrument of torture and death became the Tree of Life.
Our faith too is full of obvious contradictions, underscored Archbishop. God became human being in Jesus Christ so that we might become divine through Jesus Christ. He came down to earth that we might get into heaven. Jesus became a prisoner so that we could be set free, and through His death, we find life, life eternal.
In the face of these contradictions therefore, the Archbishop continued to preach, we are to reflect on a human being walking on the earth, being accused as blasphemous, and crucified on the Cross.
He wants to draw our attention to this “Day of Silence” when the liturgy begins in silence and ends in silence.
“We have come here on Good Friday, not so much as to hear about the Lord, not to hear a good homily, but to listen and gaze on the Lord, who speaks to us in the “silence of the Cross”.
He continues, the power of the liturgy of Good Friday comes from the silent gaze of Him who bore ‘the weight of our sins on the tree’. We are invited to ‘look on Him’ whom we ‘have pierced’ by our sins.
The liturgy of Good Friday allows us to bring all our sins/failures which have marked our lives, those that we are aware of as well as those we have suppressed or could not speak of, to lay them at the feet of the crucified Lord, while uttering the same prayer “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom”.
Archbishop concluded, “no matter what we bring to Him, know that the arms of Jesus is always stretched open for us, welcoming us and offering us the rest for our souls”.
