The Triumph of the Cross / El triunfo de la Cruz: Homily for Good Friday / Homilía del Viernes Santo: April 18, 2025

Far from a defeat, the Cross is the triumph from which the Church is born. Lejos de ser una derrota, la Cruz es el triunfo del que nace la Iglesia. Readings for Today. Lecturas para hoy.

The Triumph of the Cross / El triunfo de la Cruz

The passion account in the Gospel of John is different from the passion accounts in the other four gospels. As J Alan Culpepper writes, 

“There is (1) no mockery of Jesus at the cross; (2) no penitent thief; (3) no darkness, even though John often plays with the symbolism of light and darkness; (4) no counting of the hours (except for the comment in 19:14 that it was the sixth hour), though John has spoken repeatedly of the coming of Jesus’ hour; (5) no rending of the veil, though John tells of the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry; (6) no cry of dereliction; (7) no earthquake; (8) no opening of the tombs, though John has spoken earlier of the opening of the tombs and records the raising of Lazarus; and (9) no confession of the centurion, though John places particular emphasis throughout the Gospel on the recognition of Jesus as ‘the Son of God.’”

Why is this? For John, the point of the telling of the story is to highlight the Cross not as a defeat, but as a triumph. The death of Jesus on the cross is “a humiliation that is followed by an exaltation but as the first step in Jesus’ exaltation and glorification. The resurrection is compressed into the crucifixion so that the two are stages in one upward motion. The death is itself an integral part of Jesus’ exaltation and glorification- which of course is completed in the resurrection.”

En el relato de la pasión de Juan, las acciones de Jesús y hacia Jesús sirven para dejar clara una cuestión importante. Jesús no es sólo un predicador itinerante. Juan relata los acontecimientos de la pasión de Jesús para demostrar que Jesús es el Hijo de Dios. Y utiliza las imágenes de las Escrituras como telón de fondo de sus argumentos.

Durante la Pascua, se sacrificaban miles de corderos. Pero uno era para el Sumo Sacerdote, cuatro días antes de la Pascua. Esto habría ocurrido cuando Jesús hizo su entrada triunfal en Jerusalén. El cordero confiado llevado al matadero.

Juan nos dice que Jesús es el Cordero Pascual. Jesús, con total confianza en el Padre, es él mismo llevado al matadero. Jesús es el Cordero de la Gran Fiesta. Jesús, el Cordero de Dios, cambia deliberadamente el significado de la Pascua haciendo referencia a sí mismo. Comed mi cuerpo. Bebed mi sangre.

Jesús muere el Día de la Preparación, cuando los corderos se preparan para el sacrificio. Y como la puesta de sol en esta época del año en Jerusalén es justo después de las siete, la matanza de los Corderos habría ocurrido a media tarde.

While the sign hung above the head of Jesus says he is the King of the Jews (a seeming admission by Pilate that he did not believe Jesus to be guilty), that the sign is written in the three common languages of the area indicates that the death of Jesus is for the Jews, but not just for the Jews. All are saved by the death of Jesus. 

Again from Culpepper. “John’s interpretation of the tradition highlights elements that have ecclesiological significance, and this reinterpretation of the tradition reflects a fundamental theological insight: The Church is founded not just on the resurrection of Jesus- it has its origin at the cross. What happened at the cross, therefore, shapes for all time the nature and design of the Church.”

Con todo el sacrificio de los corderos, el Templo se habría llenado de sangre. Por eso, para limpiar el Templo antes de la puesta del sol, cuando no podían trabajar, a menudo arrojaban grandes cubos de agua, que salían por unos agujeros en el lateral del Templo.

Así, la sangre y el agua fluyen por los lados del Templo. Sangre y agua fluyen de los costados de Cristo. El punto de Juan es claro. Mientras que la Pascua original celebra la liberación de los judíos de Egipto, la Nueva Pascua, la del Cordero de Dios, celebra nuestra liberación definitiva del pecado y de la muerte.

John is not naïve. The Cross and the death of Jesus made it more difficult to believe Jesus was the Messiah. As Saint Paul writes, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”And so it is. From the Cross the Church is born. By the Cross all our saved. And by venerating the Cross, we proclaim that the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

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Traducción realizada con la versión gratuita del traductor http://www.DeepL.com/Translator

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