Isaiah 53,8-10

By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people… Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.

Meditation

I see you, Jesus, fall once more before my eyes. By falling again, you show me that you are a man, a true man. And I see you get up again, more resolute than before. You do not get up with pride; there is no pride in your gaze, there is love. In continuing on your journey, getting up after each fall, you proclaim your resurrection. You show that you are ready, once again and always, to bear on your bleeding shoulders the burden of human sin.

By falling again, you sent us a clear message of humility. You fell on the ground, on that humus from which we “humans” are born. We are dust, we are mud, we are nothing in comparison to you. But you want to become like us, and now you show yourself close to us, with our troubles, our weaknesses, the sweat of our brow. Now, on this Friday, as often happens to us, you overwhelmed by sorrow. But you have the strength to go forward, you are not afraid of the difficulties that lie ahead, and you know that at the end of your struggle there is heaven. You get up precisely to get there, to, open before us the gates of your kingdom. What a strange king you are, a king lying in the dust.

Suddenly I am thrown into confusion: we are not worthy of comparing our efforts and our falls to yours. Your falls are a sacrifice, the greatest sacrifice that my eyes and all of history will ever be able to see.

Prayer

I ask you, Lord, grant that we may be ready to get up after falling,
that we may learn from our failures.
Remind us that, when it is our turn to make mistakes and fall,
if we but stay with you, and hold fast to your hand,
we can learn to get up again.
Grant that we young people may bring to everyone your message of humility,
that future generations may open their eyes to you
and learn to understand your love.
Teach us to help those who suffer and fall beside us,
to wipe away their sweat, and to stretch out a hand to lift them up.
Our Father...