A single day, two great extremes: on one hand, a man who gives Himself entirely to those He deeply loves through an act of extreme self-giving, without measuring the price He will have to pay; on the other, a man, driven by ambition and disloyalty, betrays and leads to death the One who loves him deeply, all for a meager and vile handful of coins. This is the narrative behind Good Friday.
Faced with this stark contrast between love and betrayal, generosity and crime, our meditation must revolve around one question: For how many coins do we betray and kill the Lord?
Amazement may be our soul’s first reaction to this question; after all, we do not see in our own actions the terrible crimes committed by Judas and all those who took part in Christ’s execution. But when we look for the reason why He gave Himself up on the Cross, we find the cause: our sin.
Therefore, yes, the same crimes they once committed must be imputed to us, for with every sin we commit, we trade Christ and all His abundant and inexhaustible love for a mere momentary pleasure. How many times do we trade the “everything” for “nothing,” life for death, joy for sadness, and the honor of being children of the Father for a meager “mess of pottage.”
Yet, despite all this, God, in His infinite and inexhaustible goodness and mercy, loves us with a love that cannot be understood by man: the Almighty made Himself small like us to die for the wretches that we are, and thus elevate us to the fullness of His Grace in Heaven. All this for one single reason: LOVE.
Therefore, if we were to summarize the entire Holy Week in a single word, it would be: LOVE. But do not be deceived by mere human sentimentalism, for this love was fully manifested on the Cross, where our Savior, atrociously stretched out, is found shrouded in the bloodiest cruelty because of our fault—the scene we contemplate on Good Friday.
Beyond the deepest sense of guilt, true gratitude to the Lord must spring from our souls, for while He suffered the most painful torments, He was thinking of me, He was thinking of you. Recognize your price upon the Cross, for on that Wood we find our value before God: we cost a God who died for our love.
While we constantly and meticulously calculate the price we will pay to serve the Lord, Christ gave Himself entirely for each one, attributing our infinite value to His death.
On this Good Friday, may we deeply contemplate the great love with which we were and are loved by the Lord and, finding our inestimable value in the Savior’s Cross, may we never cease to give ourselves wholeheartedly to the One who invites us to rise again with Him, renewed by His Grace.
