The Lord Jesus Christ Died For Us | Good Friday Sermon Of St Augustine

It is good Friday, one of the holiest days of the year.

Our Lord gave everything for us.

He died on the cross for us on this day.

It is only fitting that we take the day to reflect upon what it is He offers us and

to gear our minds towards our sacrifice so that we may truly appreciate the great victory

of Easter for the victory over death.

We cannot have Easter without Good Friday, as Fulton Sheen once said,

here is a Good Friday homily by St. Augustine.

When Pilate had judged and condemned the Lord Jesus Christ at his judgment seat, they took

him about the sixth hour and led him forth, and bearing his own cross, he went forth to

that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him.

He was going therefore to the place where he was to be crucified, Jesus bearing his own

cross, a great spectacle.

But then to impiety a great sport to look upon, to Pilate an exceedingly great mystery,

impiety sees in it a great display of ignominy, piety a great strengthening of faith, impiety

looks on, and laughs at a king, bearing, instead of the scepter of sovereignty, the wood

of the punishment.

Pilate looks on and sees the king, bearing that cross for himself, to be fixed thereon,

which he would thereafter fix even on the brows of kings.

An object of contempt in the eyes of the empires, it the same thing in which later on the hearts

of the saints will glory.

Just to St. Paul, who one day will say, God forbid that I should glory put in the cross

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord commanded that very cross by bearing it on his shoulders, and for that cradle candle

which was to be lighted and not to be put under a bushel, the Lord bore the candlestick.

The human race was lost by sin, for all men coming from Adam had sinned in him.

One alone was born without sin, and he delivered from the yoke of sin.

He was made man in order to heal our wounds afflicted by sin.

The Jews were as sick as all other men in the world, yet their pride made them believe

that they were not in need of the physician, and their disease was so much more than curable

as their pride by which it was caused, led them to despise him who had come to cure it.

But they were not contented with despising him, they even put him to death, yet at the

very time they took his life he fulfilled for them the duties of a physician.

They struck him, and he cured them.

He felt the effects of their madness, but he abandoned not the stick.

They who surrounded Jesus Christ, they bound him with robes, buffeted him, struck him

with a reed and overwhelmed him with insults and blasphemies.

Lastly, they asked him juridical questions, condemned him and nailed him to the cross, yet

he still remained their physician.

You have seen the character of them in their madness, now consider the character of their

physician.

Father, he cried out, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Blinded by their rage and envy, they shed the blood of their physician, and the physician

shed his own blood to cure them of their blindness and fury.

And in that intention that his blood might flow for them, he cried out, father, forgive

them for they know not what they do.

And Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,

said, I thirst.

The divinity of Jesus Christ was hidden under the veil of his humanity.

This humanity suffered all the insults and mockery of them, whilst his divinity allowed

free scope to their fury.

He saw, then, that all things were finished, that no more required to be done before he

should receive the vinegar and give up the ghost, and that this also might be accomplished

what was foretold in the scripture.

And in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

He said, I thirst, as if it were.

And thing you have left undone, give what you are.

For those that took him were themselves the vinegar, degenerated as they were from the

wine of the patriarchs and prophets, and filled like a full vessel with the wickedness

of this world.

This godless people did all these things, and a compassionate Christ suffered them.

This blinded people knew not what they were doing, but Jesus knew what was done, and why

it was done, and he wrought what was good through those who were doing what was evil.

When Jesus therefore had taken the vinegar, he said, it is consummated.

What was finished, save all that the prophecies had foretold so long before.

Then because nothing remained that yet was to be done before, he died, as he had the

power to lay down his life, and the power to take it up again, now that all was accomplished

for the accomplishment of which he was waiting.

He bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

Who so sleeps when he will, as Jesus died when he pleased?

Who so lays aside his garment when he will, as he put off his flesh when he would?

What traveler departs from a place when he pleases, as he departed this life when he pleased?

Therefore, what must we hope or fear to find his power as a judge, if it was so great

when he died?

Bless the words of Saint Augustine, teaching about our Lord's sacrifice on the cross, on

this solemn day of good Friday.

May his words remain in our mind for today.

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I'm Anthony Stein, Ave Maria.