Today of all days we must stand at the cross and gaze on Christ crucified with hope and trust. We must stand with Mary and John and claim the new life God offers us in Christ crucified. Looking up at him, looking into the infinite distance that death has set between us and Him, we learn that our last possibility, beyond belief, beyond hope, is the possibility of love.

 

Love alone in Christ nailed to the Cross names the nothingness that each of us must become, and in the Cross we see that love has preceded us to our final resting place. This is our only hope- that He in love and by love is named our Saviour, redeemer, friend; and his death, in love and by love, has become our salvation.

 

 

 

 

Almighty Father,
look with mercy on this your family
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed
      and given up into the hands of sinners
      and to suffer death upon the cross;
who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.