Good Friday is the day of our greatest hope, matured on the Cross when Jesus dies, taking his last breath, crying out in a loud voice: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Lk 23:36). Handing over his existence "given" to the hands of the Father, he knows that his death becomes the rising-point of life, as his seed in the earth must break itself that the plant might grow: "If the grain of wheat falls to the ground and not die, it remains alone; if it does die, it will produce much fruit" (Jn 12:24). Jesus is the grain of wheat fallen to the ground, spent, broken, dead, and through this he's able to bear fruit. From the day in which raised, the Cross, that appears as the sign of abandonment, solitude, failure, becomes a new impetus: from the depths of death rises the promise of eternal life. On the Cross already shines the victorious splendor of the dawn of Easter Day.
In the silence of this night, in the silence that encases Holy Saturday, touched by the unconfined love of God, let us live in expectation of the dawn of the Third Day, the dawn of the victory of the love of God, the dawn of light that allows the eyes of the heart to see, in a new way, life, difficulties, suffering. Our failures, our disappointments, our bitterness that seems to mark the fall of everyone, are illuminated by hope. The act of love of the Cross confirmed by the Father and the blazing light of the Resurrection wraps around and transforms everything: from betrayal can grow friendship, from denial, pardon; from hatred, love.
Pope Benedict XVI
Please see Whispers in the Loggia for more.
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