GOOD FRIDAY -2

GOOD FRIDAY -2  

One day a little girl looked into her mother’s face and said, “O Mummy, you’re so beautiful ! I think you’re the most beautiful woman in the world, except for your hands; what ugly hands you have.” The girl’s father heard that. Sensing how his wife felt, he said to the child. “Let me tell you a story, a true story.” One night a little baby was asleep in her cradle. Somehow the cradle caught fire. The maidservant ran out of the room in panic. But the baby’s mother rushed in. With her delicate hands she beat out the fire and saved the child.  Those beautiful hands sustained terrible burns. For several weeks she had to have them bandaged. The hands were finally healed. But they…” The little girl did not wait for the end of the story. She ran to her mother. Reaching for her scarred hands, she kissed them over and over again. “Mother, you have the most beautiful hands in the world.”

Anyone without faith who looks at the dreadful figure on the cross would say, “What an ugly sight he is ! What a repulsive face ! I can’t stand the sight of it.”  Such a person wouldn’t be far from what the prophet Isaiah said 700 years earlier: “We saw him without comeliness, without majesty, no sight to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected by men…One from whom people turn away their faces” (Is. 53, 2-3).

Happily our faith assures us of the deep meaning and reason for this terrible change in the appearance of Jesus; and our sentiments are those of the child in the story, kissing her mother’s hands. Filled with childlike gratitude, our hearts express their praise for our Saviour. In a few moments you and I will kneel to venerate the image of the crucified Christ. And you will realize that his ugly wounds are the most beautiful proofs of his love for you. You will remember that these feet that are fixed by a nail to the cross, these feet went in search of the lost sheep. These hands that are stretched out on the cross, are the very hands that rested gently on the heads of the little children he blessed, hands that cured the sick. And those parched and swollen lips spoke the word of forgiveness.

Listen to the words of St. Theodore the Studite: “Let us turn to the Cross anew, stopping, with joy to sing its praises. The Cross, worth more than all riches. The Cross, most certain refuge for Christians. The Cross, a light burden on the shoulders of the disciples of Christ. Consoler of great sweetness, for those suffering afflictions, a path-finder for the way to heaven, which no obstacle can block.”

PRAYER (Caryll Houselander):

Jesus, I praise you because I have known sickness and pain.

I praise you because I have known poverty, failure and contempt.

I praise you because I have been falsely accused and misjudged.

I praise you because I have suffered the parting of death.

I praise you because I have lived in sordid surroundings;

and I praise you for your goodness in bringing me to a happy home and giving the Faith to my friends.

Grant that I may always sip from the Chalice I am unworthy to drink from, and support me in every moment with the strong unfolding arm of your Love.