Daniel P. Horan, Phd

Jesus’ death and resurrection express a reality that is complicated, emotionally moving, and yet joyful. Death does not have the last word. And that is indeed the good news. God is the one who will be there for us! God is the one who is concerned and cares for us! God is the one who, as we pray in Psalm 34, hears the cry of the poor! 

God of community and love,
there are many times when
we are too quick to abandon Christ
on the cross.
Like those disciples who
feared for their lives,
things great and small cause
us to fear for ours.
Help us to see the two sides
of your Son’s passion,
the love and suffering that Jesus reveals to us,
models for us, calls us to live.
Open our eyes to the
truest meaning of bearing the name Christ,
so that we too may strive to love as you love,

Like the two criminals on either side of Jesus, our choice is between what we want and what is needed, between the will of our own desires and the will of God. To follow Christ means a willingness to surrender all, even to the point of losing one’s life for God’s sake. To surrender all is to embrace the vulnerability and openness of love, while the concomitant and alternative side of that passion is the inevitability of suffering. To follow Christ, in its simplest articulation, is to love. And love we must.

The love of Jesus Christ that leads to his willing embrace of the crucified earthly destiny that appeared before him is both a model for how we are called to love and a revelation of God’s self-offering of control out of love. This model for how you and I are to love is not an invitation to masochism or some sort of foolhardy and dangerous behavior. Instead, it is an example of our willingness to accept both the suffering and the joy that comes with love. This revelation of God’s self-offering or sacrifice of control tells us a great deal about who Jesus Christ is and what God is like.

God of life, we are grateful for the many gifts that you have given to us. May we become prudent stewards of your many gifts and not thoughtlessly waste water, food, and other resources. May we respond to your Son’s cry of thirst with lives of peacemaking and just action. We make his prayer in your name. Amen.

— from The Last Words of Jesus: A Meditation on Love and Suffering by Daniel P. Horan, OFM