It is finished. A homily for Good Friday.

Holy Week reaches its climax on Easter Sunday, the day of resurrection. But John’s gospel makes the point that it is precisely on the cross that the work of Jesus is carried to its completion. That’s what “it is completed” means. What then is the resurrection? The resurrection doesn’t cancel out the crucifixion as if it were only a passing episode on the way to Easter. The resurrection vindicates the crucifixion. The Father and the Son together, in the power of the Spirit, are saying to us that the work the Father gave the Son to accomplish is consummated, completed, finished, as he dies on the cross.