Good Friday Ceremonies
29 March 2013
St. Macartan’s Cathedral, 3.00pm
Reflection
We have come together in church today as followers of Christ. We are convinced by his message. We listen to the World of God and reflect a while on it. Our mentor and model is not an earthly king of great pomp and splendour. It is a cross that he carries and it is a cross that we kiss. Isaiah says he was torn away from the land of the living; for our faults struck down in death. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help; he is the source of eternal salvation.
In his famous novel “The Fall, Albert Camus tells of a man tortured by guilt. Years have passed but his memory haunts him. He has moved from one place to the next but his guilt follows him. His terrible memories go back to a night in Paris when he was walking along the river Seine. He noticed a young woman dressed in black and standing on a bridge. He hesitated for a moment and then walked on. Then he heard a splash and then cries for help and then silence. He convinced himself that he could not help so he walked on. Years later he confessed his guilt to a stranger in a bar in Amsterdam and concluded by saying “young woman, throw yourself into the water again so that I may a second time have the chance of saving both of us.”
In accepting the gift of himself, the bread of life, in today’s Eucharist we make an act of faith in the Lord. He has come to save us. If we follow his way and redeem the past, we will find not only forgiveness and peace but life itself and fullness of life.
+Liam S. MacDaid
29 March 2013
