Throughout the Lenten season, we will post reflections for holy days and Sundays from both this year’s Lenten reflection booklet, A fast that matters, written by Frida Berrigan, and from previously published Lenten booklets, such as the one below, written by Charlene Howard in 2023 in “Witnesses on the way.” Click here to see all reflections as they are posted as well as links to other Lenten resources on our Lent 2024 webpage.
REFLECTION FOR Good Friday, March 29, 2024
by Charlene Howard, originally published in 2023
Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 | Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 | John 18:1 – 19:4
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, a grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.
Isaiah 53:8-9
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States spends over $80 billion a year on incarceration. The Innocence Project reports that over one percent of the United States’ prison population consists of wrongfully convicted individuals. Additionally, the U.S. holds the world’s record for imprisoning people! How did we get here? I assert that we are guilty despite being socialized to value human life. Consider the kinds of messages ingrained in us from birth. Yes, we are taught to be kind to others, but we also are taught to despise someone who wrongs us. Though the Golden Rule is valued there is a simultaneous drive to egocentrically value our needs at all costs. We seek to have people understand our point of view while discounting the value of an opposing perspective. We devalue human existence through acts of racism, selfishness, greed, personal comfort and power. The result is casting away anyone who is different, difficult or disturbing. We do not want to suffer yet justify the suffering our words, thoughts and actions cause others. Add to this how easily we learn to isolate the “bad” people from the “good” ones. Have privileges taken away or freedoms denied others as a consequence of their noncompliant actions. We’ve grown accustomed to disposing of the broken, outdated or uncomfortable. Slowly but surely, these kinds of messages have subliminally created a society that all too easily wrongfully convicts the innocent.
The suffering servant in Isaiah is a foreshadowing of Jesus, but also challenges us to consider how we condemn the innocent. The narrative moves us to develop a restorative mindset accompanied by practices that put others’ needs first so that the greater good can be served. Imagine how the tide would turn on crime, government, business, child-rearing, school discipline, local law enforcement and national correctional policies if we root our beliefs in acknowledging that every human being is essential to a thriving community? No one is expendable. Let’s do better!
Before Easter Sunday, with whom can you make the effort to restore a relationship – someone you have wronged or someone who has wronged you?
>> Click here to see more resources for prayer, study and action this Lenten season.
>> Join the Virtual Good Friday Way of the Cross for Peace and Justice, March 29, noon-1 PM Eastern, organized by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; Pax Christi USA is one of the participating organizations. Use this link to register.
Charlene Howard is chair of the Pax Christi USA national council. She teaches theology at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, DC. She and her husband Michael wrote the 2023 Lenten reflection booklet, “Witnesses on the way.”
Well said
Thank you, Charlene, for the wonderful reflection. Yes indeed! I agree…let’s do better.
Amen! and thank you, Charlene.