Homily: Good Friday
“This is Not a Movie”
by Fr. William Holtzinger
April 9, 2004

I went to see the movie, The Passion of the Christ, today for the second time. Since my first viewing, I must admit that my point of view of the Passion has totally changed. All the way through the movie I felt so unworthy. I know that I am thankful when someone does a kindness for me. But to be beaten and murdered for me... that’s a totally different thing.

Yet, I wonder why the retelling of the Passion at Mass has never elicited such a reaction out of me. Could it be that I became lazy and bored of the same story? Could it be that I have let my faith grow stale? Have I grown deaf to the Word of God which has told me from my earliest childhood the cost that my God paid for my sins? Or have I become numb to the reality of sin in my life? In reaction to “Catholic Guilt,” have I shut off my conscience from all guilt and refused to acknowledge the suffering I’ve caused myself? I wondered if the cares and concerns, the pressures and the stresses of my life had made me so focused on my wants that I forgot about the reality of God’s passionate love for me?

The Passion we have just proclaimed is no movie nor simple play. Nor is it mere nostalgia. In our proclamation, it has become real once again. It was re-presented to us. History poured into our present time and allowed us to be mystically present to all the events of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. We have not re-crucified Jesus. That happened once and for all. And it is that one event that we became present to in the retelling. We have been truly at the foot of the cross. We can know the suffering that Christ did for us if we just allow ourselves to listen with the ear of our soul. Do you believe that? Yes! We do believe that!

Today we have walked with Jesus and listened as he was beaten, scourged, crucified, and died. Tonight we venerate the vehicle of his death, the cross. Christ has turned a weapon of torture into a sickle of harvest for everlasting life. Christ has died, and we are proud to profess it, for it does not end here.