Good Friday Year A

Good Friday A

Vatican City, Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica – Dan 19 years old, summer of 1965

· Michelangelo’s Pietá, Duty/Devotion, especially to Parents

REPORTER: Garrick Utley, Sunday, May 21, 1972 (+7 yrs)

(Vatican City, Italy) Laslo Toth, Hungarian who immigrated to Australia, held by Rome police for attacking the Pieta statue with 15 sledge hammer blows. The Virgin's left arm was knocked off, hand broken, nose and 1 eye smashed.

· Altar – St. Peter crucified upside down, buried 20-30 feet below the altar; apostolic succession to all Catholic and Anglican bishops incl Jerry, Barry, and Katherine and à priests incl Fr. John

Venice, St. Mark’s Basilica and Square [Mark, Peter’s secretary, author gospel of Mark]
Corinth
Turkey – Ephesus Virgin Mary's house; Fr. John visited
Acre (Acco) Last Crusader Stronghold

Saladin’s 12,000 Muslim knights defeat 21,000 crusaders at Horns of Hattin (near Tiberias) on July 4th, 1187; Saladin was a Muslim leader, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. He united Muslim world Iraq to Egypt. Born in Tikrît, Iraq, Saladin, as he is known in the West, was a Kurd; Sadam Hussein also was from Tikirt and fancied himself as the new Saladin. Not Good when our President announced we were going on a Crusade to get the Muslims who attacked America on 9/11.

Nazareth
Sea of Galilee
Yardenet – Wayne Long’s baptism; bring Jordan River water back for our baptisms
14 miles (1 days walk) Ar Meggido (Armageddon) over Jezreel Valley – Land of Milk and Honey; Dan’s vision
50 miles (3 days walk) Jericho – oranges & date palms
15 miles uphill (1 day’s walk) Bethlehem – Fr. John buys our crosses out of Olive Wood

Jerusalem (5 miles – 1 ½ to 2 hours walk?; total 6 days walk)

Feels like ‘home’; like the home of God.
Founded by King David and Solomon in 1000 BC; Rome founded 753 BC (250 years after Jerusalem)
Mount of Olives
Garden of Gethsemane
Pink Sandstone – like St. Timothy’s stone walls
Enter the Golden Gate – looks Golden when reflecting the setting sun ; [Jews expected their Messiah to enter thru the Golden Gate at midnight.] [the Golden Gate, like the Golden Gate Bridge]
Via Dolorosa [‘Way of Grief’] w/ metal signs at each station of the cross; narrow streets in old city – yell & spit on the helpless
Crucifixion of Jesus – Golgotha and the tome in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Crucifixion nail – 4.5 to 6 inches long, about 3/8” to 1/2” square nail driven above the wrist – it will tear out if driven into the palm of the hand.

THE CRUCIFIED MAN FROM GIV'AT HA-MIVTAR

In 1968 building contractors working in a suburb north of Jerusalem accidentally uncovered a Jewish tomb dated to the first century after the death of Christ.6 Lying in a Jewish ossuary bearing the Hebrew inscription 'Jehohanan the son of HGQWL' were the skeletal remains of a man in his twenties, who had been crucified. The evidence for this was based on the right heel bone of the individual, pierced by a square iron nail 4 ½ inches in length.

Crucifixion – the purest evil out of man – By the Romans, not the power of the Jews
pain to humiliate, pain to dehumanize
crown of thorns, ‘INRI’ sign [Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jews]
Suffocation 2-4 days; push up with nailed feet
To make lower than animals [animal food -Wild dogs, crows, vultures]

As I reflect silently upon Jesus’ Crucifixion,

I feel anger toward the Romans and the Jewish authorities
- Who tried very hard to dehumanized me
- Whose Lack of Justice, condemned and executed an innocent man. Very young child knowing and saying ‘that’s not fair!’ Is that Jesus in them? [Micah 6:8 What does the Lord required of me – to act Justly, to Lover Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy god.]
I feel a residual pain, and aching, where the nails went in [Eucharist, Jesus in me?]

Is Crucifixion the most important Bible Lesson – that evil is to abuse power to dehumanize others. Good is to lift up and to love the helpless, treating them as family, treating them as we would want to be treated – Jesus’ Golden Rule!

This crucifixion is the major sore in the side of Western Civilization. It effects us today.

Pogroms killing entire villages of Jews every Easter
This pain passed on torturing Jews to force them to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition
Crusades – Christians killing Muslims; Muslims killing Christians
Hitler’s Holocaust
Christian Missionaries killed in Muslim countries – still Christianity not allowed by the state.
Even underlying the present day Iraq conflict and our relations with all other Muslim countries.

WWJD – What would Jesus do? About Israel – Palestine conflict

Imagine Jesus as advisor to the President of the United States, advising how to settle the dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians.
‘Be Still and Know that I am God’. Shut your eyes and reflect on Jesus’ position. Would not empower any one of the three groups to take power and property, to put down the others –
This is a story of abuse of power by the powerful, of the mighty stepping on the weak, of the powerful spitting in the eye of their loving God.

Are we not ‘One Nation Under God’?

Are we not the only Nation who can even try to mediate Peace in Israel?

I Pray that ‘Peace in Jerusalem’ will lift the pain of Jesus’ Crucifixion, and lead to God’s peace in the world, to make a big part of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ actually happen in our lifetime.