Good Friday: Pride and the Cross, April 7, 2023

One startling and distressing detail of John's Passion story is the profession of fidelity of the Chief Priests to Caesar: "We have no king but Caesar!" This is a kind of blasphemy and idolatry for it was no secret that Caesar pretended at divinity. How did those Chief priests get to such a place, these holiest of holy men? That is a profound question that reaches back to the sin of Adam and all of us ever since: taking God's gifts and claiming them as our own. Pride. The Cross we venerate on this night stands as a potent counter to that Pride. It is all humility and self-giving sacrifice. In its veneration we are called to mercy, compassion, and loving self-sacrifice. 

This homily was shared with the Saint Francis Catholic Community in Cuenca at the Iglesia de San Francisco. (Sadly, the audio of the prior proclamation of the Passion was not adequate so had to be deleted.)