Good Friday of the Lord's Passion 2021

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
April 2, 2021

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

This week we have been walking with Jesus and Mary our Blessed Mother. In the liturgy of Holy Week, we accompany them and we participate in everything that happened to our Lord in this final week of his earthly life. 

We feel their sorrow and suffering. We are overwhelmed, too, by the cruelty and injustice. How could they do this to Jesus, who was all-innocence, a man of mercy and peace? We feel all these emotions as we re-live these final days with Jesus and Mary. 

We hear that sad vision from the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading: “Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. … He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole. … He gives his life as an offering for sin.”

This is how precious your life is to Jesus. We are worth his blood, the sacrifice of his own life. That’s how much he loves us! He dies to save us from our sins, to save us from death.

In the cross, we see the certainty of God’s saving love. One of the saints said: “While the world changes, the cross stands firm.” 

This is one of the lessons that we are still learning in this pandemic, in all our disappointments and losses, in all the plans we have been forced to change or abandon.

And the lesson is this: when everything is stripped away, there is still the cross. There still remains Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead, who gave his life for each one of us. 

Our Gospel today closes with the final act of cruelty. The solider thrusts his spear into our Lord’s heart. 

But the story does not end here. Our God is the God of the living, not of the dead. The way of the Cross leads to the resurrection. Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday. We know that. 

So we leave this liturgy today — with our hearts fixed forward, with our hearts expecting Easter. 

Easter is what makes Good Friday “good.” We know the victory has been won. Jesus will rise on the third day because God’s love is stronger than death.

And my brothers and sisters, the cross is the source of our hope. Because it is true that the victory is won. Jesus has won it for us. All we need to do is live it out.

We know today that whatever crosses we carry in our lives, whatever hardships we face, Jesus is walking with us. And we know today, that if we carry our cross with him, he will lead us to the resurrection. 

The cross becomes, as we heard today in the second reading, “the throne of grace.” And we can draw near to his cross, as we heard “to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” 

So as we, today, reflect on our Lord’s sufferings, let us try to soften our hearts, try to be more caring, more thoughtful with those around us. 

And let us try to bear witness to our Lord’s love by the way lead our own lives. 

And today, on this Good Friday, let us ask the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and let us keep vigil with her at the foot of the cross. 

May she help us to open our hearts to embrace the beautiful truth — that Christ died but he rose again on the third day! And he gave everything out of love for you and for me. 

1. Readings: Isa. 52:13-53:12; Ps. 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25; Heb. 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42.