GOOD FRIDAY: IT’S LONELY UP ON THE CROSS
A HOLY WEEK REFLECTION (GOOD FRIDAY)
MESSAGE
I have been trying to make sense of loneliness. It is something we share with the rest of humanity. Everybody goes through moments when they feel detached from others, alone even in a crowd, disconnected from persons and the environment. We cannot escape this experience because it comes, not once, but repeatedly in our lives. Jesus accepted his loneliness when people misunderstood him, judged him, condemned him, and when even his disciples, did not stand by his side. He accepted the loneliness that is most extreme, death. In death, he was alone, for at a certain point, even the Father seemed to have abandoned him. Jesus did not try to eradicate his loneliness but embraced it to the point of dying to his will, his plans, his desires. But in dying, it was then that Jesus attained new life. It was the Father’s gift to his faithfulness even in the darkness of doubt, sadness, and pain. Once he is risen, he enjoys a new existence but also, he is able to give life, hope, peace, and joy to others. He can now share his Spirit, and make other lonely people brave to accept death so that like him they can live forever in union with God.
In his life, Jesus sought moments of solitude, as the Bible says, to pray. One writer however surmised, that perhaps the Lord separated himself willfully from others for two reasons: First, because he wanted to feel how it was to be lonely. For to save every human experience, he had to at least be familiar with that experience. Jesus united himself with our loneliness, just as he did with our poverty, our hunger, thirst, fear, and pain. Second, Jesus went into isolation to find those who are isolated, ostracized, and excluded, the lonely people suffering in silence with no one to support them. The Lord set the crowd aside so that he could focus on the leper, the woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman, the possessed, the tax collector, the prostitute. Jesus experienced loneliness in order to draw closer to those in the margins.
REFLECT AND ACT
This Good Friday, focus on the loneliness of Jesus in his Passion and Cross. How do you neglect to pay attention to him in your life, in your practice of your faith, in your fascination with other things? Remember people who might be “hiddenly” lonely and alone in their homes, sick beds, on the streets, and deep in their problems. Can you be a source of new life to them by reaching out to them through a text message, a phone call, or a visit? Jesus, lonely King of all the lonely people, have mercy on us all.
