HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY: 18TH APRIL 2025

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. There is a true story told of a young Italian boy who went missing for a number of days and after a frantic search, was found injured but alive having fallen half-way down a disused well near his home. In their attempts to rescue the boy, workers descended the well to where the boy was trapped but every time they would approach the place where he was, he found fall further down the deep pit. This was the dilemma until someone thought of the idea of digging a channel parallel to the well but deeper than where the boy was, and then digging across to the well and rescuing the boy from underneath. This was successful and eventually, the child was brought to the surface where he was joyfully reunited with his parents.

I remembered this story as I reflected on the mystery of the death of Jesus on this Good Friday. Throughout his life, Jesus’ relationship with his Father was deep and intimate. His awareness of being the Father’s beloved Son was the bedrock of his life and defined his whole mission.

Out of love, the Father sent Jesus into the world to descend into our human condition to be like us in all things but sin. At his baptism, he who was sinless, descended into the waters of the Jordan to enter into solidarity with us sinners and to offer us new life. But now, at the moment of his death, he made the greatest descent of all. In his agony and loneliness, the love of the Father that had meant everything for him, seemed so far away: so much so that in the depths of his torments and darkness he cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Why did the Father allow his Son to sink to such depths? Why did Jesus feel so alone at that moment?

Jesus sank to the depths of suffering and isolation in order to offer forgiveness and hope to the sinner who had drifted furthest from God. Just like the rescue worker in the story who went deeper than where the lost boy had fallen in order to rescue him, so the Father in his love for us, sent his only Son to offer forgiveness and hope to the one who needed it most. Like the lover in the Song of Songs who enters into the darkness in search of the beloved, such was the depths of God’s love that he sent his beloved Son to suffer with and for those who had strayed furthest away in order to include them into the life-giving embrace of God. This is the Good News of today and it is not just a theological theory.

To the sick, the dying, the homeless, the tortured, the broken in spirit, the lonely, the unloved: to all who have descended into darkness: today from the cross, Jesus offers us fresh hope by telling us ‘You are not alone. I am aware of your suffering. I am with you. I know. I understand’.

Yet Jesus’ descent to the depths in death was matched by his going out to the edges in life. He was the Good Shepherd who leaves the flock in search of the one who is lost and goes to them, no matter how far he had strayed. In his ministry, he is found with sinners, lepers, the sick and those who were on the margins of society and the Jewish community. Time and time again, healing, inclusion and table fellowship were the features of his actions and words: signs that were associated with the kingdom of God and that opened up the possibility of intimacy with God to a wider circle. On Good Friday, he was crucified outside the city walls and as Isaiah tells us in the first reading, was given a tomb with wicked. At the moment of his death, the temple veil is torn in two: symbolic of the opening up of heaven to earth and the new temple of Christ’s body becoming the house of prayer for all and not just for some.

For us who are Christian today, we might ask ourselves: if Jesus went beyond the boundaries to extend the offer of love to others in Jerusalem, how then can we live that same spirit of mission today? The answer would seem to lie in identifying who and where is our brother and sister at the edges so that we may go to be with them.

Out of love for us and for all humanity, our crucified God plummeted the depths and went to the edges. In his death and his life, he went down and he went out. On the cross he bridged the heights of heaven and the depths of hell and extended his arms to those on the furthest margins.

Today we thank him from our hearts for including us too in such an embrace of mercy. From his wounded side may he pour out his Spirit so that we may go beyond ourselves to reach those who have fallen, those who have strayed and who are in most need. May our communion with them break open all circles, tear all veils and lead to a new Springtime of holiness and faith in our Church. Amen.