Below is the full text of the homily of Bishop Paul Hinder on Good Friday at St. Joseph's Cathedral Abu Dhabi on 2 April 2021
In the first chapter of John’s gospel, two disciples of John the Baptist followed Jesus. He turned to them with the question: “What are you looking for?” (John 1:38) The Baptist just before called their attention to Jesus with the words: “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
Today we heard in the passion the same question of Jesus “Whom are you looking for?” (John 18:7) This time he was not asking followers but persecutors: “the detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees”. When they said: “Jesus of Nazareth!” he replied “I am he” so powerfully that they fell to the ground. “I am he” refers to the moment when God revealed himself to Moses with similar words “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14).
Today, on Good Friday, we have to ask ourselves: “Whom am I looking for?” Is it “I am he”, God hidden in the “Lamb of God”, disguised in the man of sorrows? The motives to look for Jesus can be very different. Those who came to the garden were looking for him with the intention to arrest and finally to kill him. Earlier the Jews were looking for Jesus because he had given them bread and they wanted to make him king. Judas Iscariot was looking for Jesus to make some money. What is my/our interest in Jesus?
Today, Jesus calls from the cross: “Come and see!” We are climbing Golgotha not out of curiosity like those who wanted to see the spectacle of an execution. We climb Golgotha as believers, to see and to know the one who said of himself: “I am he!” “I am the good shepherd!” “I am the bread of life!” “I am the way, the truth, and the life!” “I am the resurrection and the life!”
Whom are we really looking for at this moment when we see the crucified the one who was the hope of Israel and the whole mankind? Do we still believe in the face of the crucified and given the crimes and miseries that continue in this world? We can do it because three days later Jesus appeared as a gardener to Mary of Magdala at his tomb and asked her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” (Jn 20:15) Calling her by name: “Mary”, she recognized him and professed “Rabbi – Master”. Today, we stand at the foot of the cross and the Lord may ask us the same question, “Why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” From the cross, he calls each one of us by name that we can profess: “My Lord and my God!”
Brothers and Sisters, remember Simon Peter who had disowned three times Jesus! After the resurrection the risen Lord will challenge him three times with the question: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” This time Jesus is not asking him “Whom are you looking for?” but “Do you love me?”
Today, kneeling at the bottom of the cross we tell him: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me.” “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”