Good Friday

Some thoughts for Good Friday, taken from " God Is Near Us", written by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now, The Holy Father.

"He who is the Son of God, he who is man gives himself to the Father in dying and thus shows himself to be the one who brings us all into the Father. He now institutes true blood brotherhood, a communion of God and man; he opens the door that we could not open for ourselves.

On the Cross, Christ saw love through to the end.
Jesus died praying, and in the abyss of death He upheld the First Commandment and held on to the presence of God."

Did Jesus fail? Well he certainly was not successful in the same sense as Caesar or Alexander the Great. From the worldly point of view, he did fail in the first instance: he died almost abandoned; he was condemned on account of his preaching. The response to his message was not the great Yes of his people, but the Cross. From such an end as that, we should conclude that Success is definitely not one of the names of God and that it is not Christian to have an eye to outward success or numbers. God's paths are other than that: his success comes about through the Cross and is always found under that sign. The true witnesses to his authenticity, down through the centuries, are those who have accepted this sign as their emblem.

So let us be ready to hear the call of Jesus Christ; he who, as the grain of wheat that died,has become fruitful down thruogh all the centuries; the Tree of Life, in whom even today men may put their hope."