Bishop Barron's Good Friday homily on the cross as both judgment and mercy
Bishop Robert Barron delivers a Good Friday sermon at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Winona, Minnesota.
Summary
Bishop Robert Barron delivers a Good Friday homily centered on the dual nature of the cross of Jesus as both judgment and mercy. He argues that the Passion reading serves a specific spiritual purpose: to illuminate the sinfulness of every believer by holding up a mirror through its cast of characters — Judas, Peter, Caiaphas, Pilate, the Roman soldiers, and the mockers. Drawing on Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor and a childhood memory of his first-grade teacher, Sister Myra, he makes the case that sin is universal and inescapable, but that the cross does not end in condemnation. The risen Christ's response to those who betrayed and abandoned him was not judgment but peace — and it is in the combination of honest judgment and merciful love, Barron argues, that true spiritual healing is found.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
The Cross as a Mirror of Human Sinfulness
Bishop Robert Barron: Good afternoon, everybody. It's a privilege to be with you on this holy day in this beautiful place.
It's something of a commonplace in the psychological profession that if you want to affect healing in someone, you have to get to the underlying problem. That's difficult, because we are great at covering up, repressing, suppressing, denying, and making excuses. So the first move is often to get behind all of that — to find out what is generating the problem.
There is something very similar in the spiritual order. What is the source of our deepest suffering? It's always the same thing, everybody. It's sin. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is standing athwart the will of God. But we are expert at making excuses, covering up, denying, suppressing, blaming somebody else. We won't find healing until we uncover the truth of our own sinfulness.
The Purpose of the Passion Reading
Bishop Robert Barron: Can I suggest — and I know we hear the Passion reading every year — can I suggest that this is one of the purposes of this reading? In the glare of the cross of Jesus, we see our own sinfulness illumined. We are meant to see in all of these different characters what our own rebellion against God looks like.
Do we betray the Lord as Judas did? Yes — every time we sin, even we who gather around the table with him on a weekly or daily basis, as Judas did. Do we deny him as Peter did? Absolutely. Every time we sin, but also whenever we find ourselves in certain company where we are a little embarrassed by our faith and we don't even speak of it. Do we show deep injustice in our lives like Caiaphas and Pilate? Yes. Do we cave in to the pressure of the crowd as Pilate did? We do that. Do we sometimes show the cruelty of those Roman soldiers? Yes, sometimes. And what about the people who mock him even as he hangs from the cross? Every time we engage in verbal violence. Go online any time of the day or night and you will see plenty of verbal violence.
Hatred, cruelty, denial, betrayal, injustice — all of it is on display in this reading, and we are meant to see ourselves reflected in it.
Dostoevsky and the Grand Inquisitor
Bishop Robert Barron: The great Russian novelist Dostoevsky, in The Brothers Karamazov, has that famous scene of the Grand Inquisitor, the whole point of which is this: if Jesus came back to us now, oh, we would welcome him with open arms — we would be so overjoyed. No, says Dostoevsky. We would kill him again.
Didn't St. Peter say in one of his early sermons, "The author of life came, and you killed him"? That is the bright light that shines from the cross onto our own sinfulness. We are meant to see it clearly.
And who echoed Dostoevsky? My first-grade teacher, Sister Myra. I can still remember her. She said to us — little kids, six years old — "Every time you sin, it is as though you are pounding the nail into the hand of Jesus." A bit of Catholic piety, perhaps, but making the same point. Every sin, every sin, is a rebellion against him.
There is no hiding, everybody. We can try. We can run, but we cannot hide. In the glare of the cross, we see our sins.
Judgment and Mercy — The Meaning of Good Friday
Bishop Robert Barron: But this day is called Good Friday — and that is a good thing. It is a good thing that we admit our sinfulness, that we see it clearly. But here is the second move. What do we hear from that cross? Condemnation? No. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.
What does the risen Jesus say when he returns to these disciples who had betrayed and denied and abandoned him and run from him? Does he say, "I condemn you"? No. He says, Shalom. Peace.
We killed God, and God returned in forgiving love. The cross is judgment — yes. And the cross is mercy — yes. And in that combination, we find salvation.
If the cross were only judgment, it would leave us in a kind of spiritual lurch: all right, I am a terrible sinner — and then what? If the cross were only mercy, it would be a kind of cheap grace. No. The cross of Jesus is both judgment and mercy. Both judgment and mercy. We see our sins — good. They are exposed to us clearly. And we sense his merciful love. It is in that combination, everybody, that we find salvation.
You know what that word salvation simply means? It means healing. Salos in Latin means health. Healing. In the judgment and the mercy of the cross, we find healing.
Which is precisely why, in just a few minutes, we are all going to come forward to reverence the cross of Jesus.