Good Friday 2012 – “More Beautiful”

First Reading: Isaiah 52:13—53:12

13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
14 As many were astonished at him — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men –
15 so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Embracing the Cross (U.S. Catholic Guest Post)

Today, I had the chance to guest blog a Good Friday reflection over at U.S. Catholic. Below is the text of the post. Have a blessed Good Friday and a Happy Easter!

Embracing the cross

Friday, April 22, 2011

By Online Editor

In order to make it to the celebration of new life, we have to sit with death on Good Friday first.

Guest blog post by Angelica N. Quinonez

Holy Week. Mystery. We have spent the past several weeks in reflection, sacrifice, and prayer awaiting this week and the culmination of a season that ends in the promise of renewal. In the words of Revelation we hear the promise of Easter, “Behold, I make all things new” (21:5).

Christ’s death and resurrection have brought us the promise of new beginnings—the chance to begin again and be transformed through God’s love. We do not become new people in the sense that all our past is no longer with us. Rather, in the same way that the Christ who resurrected was the same Christ who lived, suffered, and was crucified, we are given life anew in the Easter promise as we continue to carry the visible and invisible marks of our past life as a testimony of our redemption. Just as Christ appeared to the apostles with the visible marks of his torture, so we appear with the marks that remind us that love transforms.

But, to find new life we must pass through death. Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality and Holy Week reminds us that death is not final; even what we deem is finite can be transformed by a loving God who chose to enter into humanity.

Sin was transformed by a man who embraced his fate and accepted death on a cross—a form of execution that even Roman citizens wanted to deny. And with the cross came humiliation, suffering, abandonment, fear, and torture. In that moment, on a cross, Christ experienced the pangs of humanity’s suffering a hundredfold, thereby bridging the gap between humanity and God that our enslavement to sin had created.

To live out the Easter promise as Easter People, we must embrace the reality of the cross and the cross itself. So often, I see churches removing crucifixes in favor of crosses or glossing over the harsh reality of Good Friday. Are we embarrassed? Are we afraid of seeing ourselves—people broken, fearful, sinful, and sorrowful—in the corpus?

True love can be painful, but it is also beautiful. Our Easter begins on the cross on Good Friday, where the truest of all love poured itself out to gift us with the opportunity to transform and have life anew. It is sin that condemned Christ to the cross, sin that he was crucified upon, and Love that readily and willingly embraced it all.

St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “Love is the cross, and the cross is Love.” This final week of Lent, let us embrace and celebrate the cross. Yes, let us celebrate the cross and rejoice in Christ’s triumph over death. And on Easter, let us accept the gift of new life and the ability to transform into God’s people living out the promise of our redemption.

Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

May your Easter be blessed.

Guest blogger Angelica N. Quinonez holds a B.A. in English from Santa Clara University and an M.A. in Theology from the University of San Francisco. She is a 28-year-old San Franciscan, aspiring writer, and educator. She blogs over at Through A Glass Onion.

A Song for Good Friday

I can think of no more appropriate a day to share this song than on Good Friday. The song was written by Sarah Hart and is sung by Jesse Manibusan–two very talented Catholic singer/songwriters. This song was one of the inspirations behind my thesis and an aid in reflection since I first heard it. Sarah’s lyrics capture the beauty and intensity of the cross. Christ transforms death on the cross into something beautiful. In the face of suffering, Christ chose us and “nothing could be more beautiful.” May you have a blessed Good Friday.

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