It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!

It’s Friday. The women are crying. Peter’s denying. But Sunday is coming.
It’s Friday. The leaders are chiding. The disciples are hiding. But Sunday is
coming.
It’s Friday. The soldiers are beating. Jesus is bleeding. But Sunday is coming.
It’s Friday. Jesus is walking, stumbling, falling. The crowd is gawking, chiding,
insulting. But Sunday is coming.
It’s Friday. Nails are driven. “Father forgive them.” It’s Friday, but Sunday is
coming.
It’s Friday. Death is winning. Satan is grinning. He doesn’t know that Sunday is
coming.
It’s Friday. The earth is shaken. My God, forsaken. But Sunday is coming.
It’s Friday. His Spirit is lifted. Salvation is gifted. And Sunday is coming.

(This is my adaptation of a famous sermon by Dr. Tony Campolo.)

It’s Friday. Jesus died a long, slow painful death.
Death by crucifixion was death by suffocation. In order to exhale, Jesus had to
raise himself up pushing with his legs and driving the wounds in is feet down
against the nail. His arm and leg muscles are cramping. He does this for as long
as he can and then he collapses back down again hanging by his wrists until his
lungs fill with carbon dioxide again and he can’t breathe and has to push himself
up again. Jesus repeats this process until he no longer can.

Jesus endured this for us. It was our sins that he bore – our sufferings that he
endured.

He learned about human suffering from the inside out. He experienced everything
and we do as human beings, and yet never sinned. He was betrayed, condemned,
abandoned, denied, judged, beaten, burdened, and killed. But that’s not the end –
because Sunday’s coming.

She is a young woman and she thought that this boyfriend was “the one.” But the
relationship has ended and her dreams of what her life would be lay shattered on
the ground. If you know her, let her know that Sunday’s coming.

Thirty-four years he worked for that company. He gave them the best years of his
life. At times he even sacrificed time with his wife and children because it was what the company needed. Today he got a pink slip. If you see him, tell him thateven though it is Friday, Sunday’s coming.

Sixty-three years they were together as husband and wife and now she is alone.
The emptiness is big and overwhelming at times. She knows that Sunday is
coming, but today she needs someone to spend this Friday with her.

Our faith is marginalized in the world today. People look at us and shake their
heads. They put us down for standing up for life – for the right of an unborn baby
to see the light of day, for the right of an elderly person to the medical care that
they need. It’s Friday. We need to be reminded that Sunday is coming.

Each year, Lent and the Triduum – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter
Vigil – help us to re-experience the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death
and resurrection is a pattern that repeats itself over and over again in our lives. We
help our children as they experience it for the first time. Games are lost and then
won again. Even the seasons echo this great mystery – the Paschal Mystery – that
under the snow of winter is the seed of spring. We help each other as we
experience it this time. Jobs are lost and then found again. Plans are dashed and
then made again. We have hope because we know that Sunday is coming.

But today – today is Friday.
The covered cross, the empty tabernacle, the bare altar – all speak of the emptiness
that echoes inside of us.

Today we bring ourselves to the cross of Christ. We come to Jesus who knows our
suffering. He surrendered himself to death for us. He stretched open his arms and
said with his life, “This is how much I love you! You with all your struggles and
your failings, I love you.”

Come and pray before the cross of Christ. We pray today not only for ourselves,
but for the whole world.

Come and touch the cross with your hands, or stand silently before it, that you
might touch it with your heart. Leave here at the foot of the cross all that burdens
you. Come and reverence the one who takes your burdens and frees you to love as
He does.

Come and receive Jesus in communion that you might know, even on the darkest
days – that Jesus is with you – personally and intimately.

Come that you might know – that even though today is Friday – Sunday is
coming!