Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Good Friday Homily, April 14, 2006

In the synoptic gospel= s we hear after the deep, rich, loving experience of the Last Supper and especially Jesus= prayer to the Father, the disciples with Jesus go to Gethsemini. There we hear Jesus gather the apostles, especially Peter, James and John, close to him and tell them to pray. He goes on the side and he says that he is filled with fear as one translation puts it, and that he’s sad even unto death. Then we hear prayer: A Father, let this cup pass from me. Not as I will but your will be done.@ Since the Lord prays this prayer three times, it seems to me there are three ingredients in the cup.

After all, Jesus knew what were the practices of the Romans in crucifying his fellow members of the community. He had plenty of examples even as a youth to know this.

The first ingredient must have been just absolute horror of what to expect in this march to the cross. After all he knew there would be scourging, crowning of thorns, and all kinds of abuses, physical as well as statements, rejections, spittle, etc. Of course, he knew he would be crucified. The difference is that Jesus is not reading about it, he’s letting it in. It is such a horrendous picture that he is shaken. He is totally open to what he is to soon experience. Then he goes to the apostles looking for consolation and for support and finds them sleeping. He sees that not only is he feeling distant from the Father, which was a totally new experience for him because he was always in the support of his Father= s presence, now even the support of his close friends and their discipleship.

The second element for Jesus is a profound sense of aloneness. Jesus already had this experience to some degree because after all he knew so much more than the apostles. And he knew so much more clearly his mission. But when you= re alone and you have a purpose and you= re supported by human beings it= s still quite different from what he now has to go through. He’s totally alone in his human existence.

The final ingredient of the cup must have been the taking on of our sins. This is a hard one for us to understand because when we sin and take on our sin our emotions, our life, cover up the real significance of them and their depth and tragedy and a few other things. But Jesus is all holy. So Jesus is totally swamped by this experience.

So Jesus= repetitive prayer is not a repetition that= s exactly identical. Each time he is saying a deeper yes with his passion and death. It is a real, full A yes!@ So that when he comes out he is strong, purposeful and committed. If we look at Luke= s gospel we can say the Father confirmed it by the sending of an angel to console him. The real challenge for us is to stay with Jesus.

Mel Gibson= s Passion movie watched by so many people stirred up a lot of controversy. One of them was the scourging was way too long, it was horrendous, yet it wasn= t really, fully, historically accurate. It didn’t run the whole length that it did for Jesus, for one thing. It was very hard for us to stay with someone who is suffering. Especially hard when it is this kind of brutal, torturous, abusive treatment.

St. Ignatius says when he runs his retreats through the passion, it takes effort to pray over the Passion. He says you have to choose to love Jesus, because you may not feel anything. Some people think that it is wrong for us to have sorrow, even to weep, when we contemplate the passion. The only kind of sorrow and weeping that is not for us is when we are wrapped up in ourselves. But if we= re really open to the Passion, sorrow and weeping is for Jesus not for ourselves.

The second challenge that goes with it is not only that we have to learn and therefore to choose to stay with Jesus in the Passion, but we have to be compassionate to suffer with him. That= s what the word compassion means. Again it is to suffer his sufferings with him, and for him, not for ourselves.

It= s not surprising that a lot of Catholics find it difficult to come and celebrate Good Friday. They find it difficult to stay with Jesus= suffering. To really stay close to the person of Jesus, to see the agony in his eyes, and to experience the pains of his body, and the anguish of his soul.

Each of these is tonality different. Being abused physically is quite different from this total aloneness. The total aloneness is totally different from the experience of taking on the sins of the world. By taking on the sins of the world means to experience separation from God in its depth, which means close to the boarder of non-being. Kind of deep philosophy, but it= s true.

Besides this challenge to stay with the Lord, and not sleep likes the apostles, comes the real challenge - spend enough time with the Passion. Learn two things, maybe three. That Jesus chose to suffer. He could’ve taken off a number of times and certainly he could’ve taken off in the garden, itself. The city was over-ridden with all kinds of tourists that came for the Passover meal, it would have been easy for him to slip into the crowd and be gone. He didn’t, He chose to suffer.

So how tough is it for us to stay with Jesus and the Passion and realize that he did this for my sins. I committed this or that serious sin and Jesus suffered these things because of my sin, for me. Then maybe even tougher is that he suffered it for me, not only for my sins.