The day that Christ Sacrificed himself for me:

The day that Christ Sacrificed himself for me:

When was that when I hadn’t yet become a child?  Consider what the Lord said to Jeremiah when he called him; The word of the Lord came to me thus:  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.  “Ah Lord God!”  I said, “I know not how to speak; I am too young.”   (Jer 1: 4 - 6).

This very message that you and I are likely to  respond back to the Lord when he calls on us to carry the torch of the Good News, just as he did on that Good Friday.  You see, we don’t just memorialize the Passion of Christ, we now pick-up where he left off as evil men crucified him as Satan was certain the Son of God failed in his quest to save the human race.  

In death, God calls man to himself.  Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ.”  He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:  (CCC 1011).

My earthly desire has been crucified…there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.  (St. Ignatius).  I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die.  (St. Teresa of Avila).  I am not dying, I am entering life.  (St. Thersa of Lisieu).  

Each one of these Saints, including Jeremiah, knew through their own suffering what being called forth to their own cross and were willing to become prophets in their own manner to follow Christ as we can see by their own Good Friday. 

There is only one matter we need to adhere with on Good Friday, besides the death of Christ and the shedding of his blood, is what he expects from us since each one was called to continue his message by sharing his mission to reach the unsaved by our own suffering for him.  

That will come each day that we enter a world that has not believed from the very moment the creation of man became real.

The Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole human race.  (CCC 831). All men are called to belong to the new People of God.  This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God’s will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one …The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit.  (cf Mt 28: 19).

Herein lies the basis for our picking up the mission that Christ is and ours to follow.

Ralph B. Hathaway