Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion Part 2 of Triduum 2022 April 15, 2022
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
[See part 1 here]
[See part 3 here]
The authority to love. That’s how we defined freedom last night as we began this paschal journey. Jesus, aware that the Father has put everything in his power, used that power to serve, to wash the feet of his disciples, to institute the sacraments of the Eucharist and the priesthood while also foreshadowing the sacrament of confession. Even while washing their feet, Jesus continued to give commands, to exercise his authority to cause them to grow in the ability to love, to utilize their own authority for the good of those over whom they are placed.
And today we see the contrast of that idea with those of the fallen world. “Then you are a king?” Pilate asks. “Everyone who listens to the truth listens to my voice.” In a divine irony like the one we say this past Sunday, Pilate from then on refers to Jesus as a king. The right words said by the wrong person, said for the wrong reason. Pilate calls Jesus a king precisely so that he can tear him down, so that he can set up a conflict between his authority and the supposed authority of the Jesus of Nazareth, king of those who listen to the truth and king of the Jews.
Pilate’s cynicism is clear. “What is truth?” “Do you not know that I have power to release you?” But Jesus’s authority is real because it is rooted in truth. He bears witness, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.” Pilate’s authority is not his own. Besides the legal reality of serving Caesar and the political risks of rebellion from the people under him, Pilate does not understand where authority comes from and what it is for. And we see this in his lack of freedom. He doesn’t really have the power to release Jesus. Enslaved to his own ambition and fear, he makes the only choice his own vices and selfishness would let him make. Fear of death and loss rule him.
But not Jesus. Authority rooted in truth. Authority aimed at love. This gives him the authority to transcend all the control that fear of death puts on human beings. Jesus has the authority – the actual capacity and mission – to genuinely love those over whom he rules, regardless of who opposes him. How often we must recall this central fact – what does it mean to love? To love is to will the good of another – to choose… to act for their true benefit. This requires understanding who and what they are. It requires understanding what is truly best for them and that, all too often, what they want is not what’s best.
Simon Peter is proof of this. Despite having just received communion and a symbolic representation of confession, he denies Jesus. As with Pilate and just about everyone except Jesus, the fear of death controls him, proving that he does not really have the freedom he should have; he lacks the authority to love. What he wants is to stay alive, but what’s best for him is to join with Jesus in bearing witness to the truth. It is not an accident that his loss of freedom, his sin, and his fear takes on the form of a lie – a denial of the truth.
But Jesus is unafraid. Just as he prays for the forgiveness of his murderers in Luke’s gospel, so in John’s Gospel he, in the midst of his own death, stops to use his authority once again for the good of others. He makes sure his mother is cared for by his disciples and his disciple is cared for by his mother.
If you ask someone who is more free: the person who dies or the one who lives, what do you suppose their answer would be? It is clear in this moment, however, that the most free man to ever live is the one nailed to a cross and dying of asphyxiation. The most free woman is his mother watching it happen. They have the freedom to bear witness to the truth no matter what. They have the freedom to genuinely love others no matter what. This freedom is offered to us, a share in this authority. But know this: if you accept it, the world will not accept you as it did not accept him. The price of freedom, the form of authority is the cross, but that’s just it, this freedom to love means you need not fear it because it conquers even death.