Good Friday Homily
April 19, 2019
Sacred Heart, EGF – 3 PM

Focus:              Christ exchanged his life for death so that we might exchange our death for life.
Function:        Receive the gift.

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O wondrous exchange!

The One deserves salvation while the many deserve condemnation,
and yet
The One is condemned so that the many might be saved.

Christ exchanges his life for our death
so that we might exchange our death for his life.

For:
It was our infirmities he bore,
Our sufferings he endured,
Our sins for which he was crushed,
Our death that he died.

O glorious exchange!

What is an exchange?
An act of reciprocal giving and receiving.
Not merely giving, but giving and receiving.

It has been said that “a gift is not a gift until it has been given.” That is true.
But it also true that “a gift is not a gift until it has been received.”

If we give a gift to someone and they decline the gift, where does that leave us?

We have just been given an immense gift.
Will we receive it?

Christ just emptied himself and gave his life for us.
Let us receive that gift into our hearts.

And, with hearts overflowing with love and gratitude,
let us give him our love and gratitude.

Brothers and sisters, come to the cross.

Come to the place, to the intersection, where the exchange takes place.
Come to the place from which the sacraments receive their power.
Come and receive the gift.

Come to the cross.
Come to venerate the cross.
Come to behold the wood of the cross on which hung the salvation of the world.

When we come with our love and gratitude,
He receives our love and gratitude,
and gives his body once again in the Eucharist.

Christ exchanges his life for your death
so that you might exchange your death for his life.

Exchange your death for his life.

O marvelous exchange!

And it happens at the Cross.