The Passion of Jesus a Invitation to an Authentic Repente.

Good morning, Happy Good Friday and blessings.

During our Mass today we will be reflecting critically on the passion of Jesus. Few aspects of Jesus' life have been so manipulated as his death. Coming to think that God loves human suffering and, therefore, not only has to accept it, but voluntarily seek it, perhaps it has been the greatest misrepresentation of the God of Jesus. From this perspective, it is logical to think of a God who demands the death of his own son to forgive the sins of human beings. This idea is the most contrary to Jesus' preaching about God that we could imagine.

The death of Jesus was not required, programmed, or allowed by God, he was murdered by the Roman empire and people’s religious fanaticism. The God of Jesus does not need blood to be able to forgive us. Continuing to speak of the death of Jesus as a condition for God to deliver us from our sins is the most emphatic denial of the God of Jesus.

This Good Friday is very special. We will not see Jesus crucified on the streets, but we will contemplate him behind those thousands of sick and deceased people that the pandemic is impacting. We will also discover in the faces of those who work against this pandemic the Cyrene who helped Jesus carry the cross. Or in the women who accompanied him in solidarity on his way to be crucified. But the Passion always has a meaning and all those human casualties will surely change the course of history and we hope that they help us humanize our societies. It will be the way to make the Risen Jesus be present among us.

Today the Passion of Jesus with his symbol of liberation from the cross is a subversive message against the ultraconservative current of Neo-evangelism of prosperity theology (it refers to economic progress as a sign and promise of divine approval), individual salvation, market economy, consumerism, sexism, heterosexism, racism, classism and other demons. Jesus' Passion is an invitation to seek ways to generate wealth that does not lead to the exclusion of the majority. This Passion wants to result in full life for all people bringing heaven to earth.

Today Good Friday we come with a radical procession. At 2:00 pm on the church steps we will have a banner that says: Let's keep faith and physical distance in social solidarity. At 2:00 pm we will have our Mass live on Facebook and at 5:00 pm in solidarity with the Passion of Jesus we will respond with food against the hunger pandemic that exists in our capitalist society. In this way we will continue to listen to the voice of Jesus when he says to us: thank you because when I was hungry you gave me food.

Remember, the Passion of Jesus is an invitation to repentance, to a radical change. It is not simply a question of whether we are following Christ or giving religion to the people so that they do not think. The bottom line is, have we taken the Liberating Cross of Jesus?

Blessings…

Fr. Luis +