John has given us his portrait of Jesus in his Gospel with the victory of the Resurrection clearly in mind. He presents Jesus as in charge of the situation. It is he who surrenders himself to the authorities. He it is who seems to put Pilate on trial. He carries his own cross to Calvary. He gives up his life. It is accomplished. He had said "I lay down my life in order to take it up again."

We who still await our resurrection still have to deal with his and our death. Today we can only to meditate on the words we hear as we commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus our Saviour. Even though we read that long Passion account from John the Church gathers today itself lost for words as we contemplate the death of the innocent one. Words are never adequate to console those who have lost a loved one. Words can never do justice about someone who is innocently murdered.

All we can do is embrace the wood of the cross in which the Saviour died. A kiss of reverence for the one who hung upon it. And a kiss of thanksgiving because it is the tree of victory over death.

As we do so we are aware of the many who die daily as victims of crime or war, and the blood which freely flows in many lands torn apart by conflict. Nothing seems to change in human history. Jesus suffering and death seems to sum it all up for us.

Nevertheless, the way Jesus carried his suffering and death with such compassion gives a dignity and hope to all those who die. Even those who die alone, or in a nursing home, those dying a painful death, those taken suddenly from their families, share in his prayer and are not forgotten by God.

And the love which motivated Jesus to pursue his proclamation of the Kingdom of God is stronger than death. He was not abandoned by the Father. And neither are we. That is the hope we bring to this Good Friday. A Friday that is Good precisely because of that triumph of life over death.

Fr Graham