14.04.2017
Good Friday 2017 – Archbishop Reflects on Walk of Witness in Dublin
The Way of the Cross and The Cross of the Way, words walking in tandem, draw together an experience of walking with others and walking with one’s own thoughts as Christians the world over remember and enter into the Passion of Jesus Christ. Good Friday is the name we give to this day and to this experience. It is our conviction that goodness comes to the world of humanity through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is a difficult and a scandalous doctrine. It comes in a number of ways. One is that so much suffering through history is a wrong imposed on those who do not merit it, the innocent, the weak, the abandoned, the exploited, the defenceless: the crucifixion of Jesus as we Christians remember it expresses the solidarity of one World Faith with the rest of humanity. And suffering is no respecter of persons or of Faiths as events daily show us. Another is the narrative of salvation that is special to the Christian Faith. Whatever words and theological emphases we feel to be appropriate, we need the annual and the weekly and the daily remembrance of the events through which God redeemed the world by, with and in Jesus Christ who came to earth for this purpose. Incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension are some of these words. It is beautifully summed up in the words of the hymn: ‘When I survey the wondrous cross …’
As the Taize Cross is carried through the streets of the city of Dublin, there is a deep sense of urgency and a quickening pace on the part of those who walk with the cross. Beginning in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin 8, we are bound for St Mary’s Pro–Cathedral in Dublin 1. While the number of walkers grows each year, people who are on the streets are nonetheless surprized that something like this happens. Our job is simply to keep walking. Nobody has ever interrogated the motivation of those who walk and it is right that it should be like this. Some may be walking for themselves. Some may be walking for a loved one who has suffered or who is suffering. Some may be walking for the suffering of humanity. The whole experience is made possible by the generosity of Archbishop Martin and by the clergy of both cathedrals and by the people who take the time and make the effort to walk The Way of the Cross.
Holy Week begins with the very direct challenge to easy–going Christianity from Philippians 2.6: Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus … This sentiment carries on like a river flowing above and below the ground throughout Holy Week. On Good Friday those of us who wish to do so have the opportunity to bring movement and community to these lonely–echoing words and to join in the inspiring Taize chant: Laudate omnes gentes, laudate Dominum …(Praise all you peoples, praise the Lord …) when we reach St Mary’s Pro–Cathedral and to pray at the foot of the cross in the heart of the city of Dublin. It is Good Friday. It is good to be here. God is in our midst.
The Most Reverend Michael Jackson, archbishop of Dublin