Given at the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion on 3 April 2026 at Westminster Cathedral.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The liturgy in which we come together today is like no other in the Church’s year. The very simplicity and starkness of this liturgy assist our reflection and meditation on the passion and death of the Saviour. Today, therefore, let us open our minds and hearts, as never before, to the realities of all that the Lord Jesus does for us in his suffering and death.
The depth of his suffering is beyond comprehension, not simply on account of the brutality that we see inflicted upon Him. Jesus is the Word made Flesh, the One who was in the beginning and through whom all things were made. He is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the only Son of the Father, sent to share completely in our humanity in all things but sin. What happens in the passion and death of Christ is nothing less than the putting to death of the unblemished lamb of God, sinless, divine.
Why did the Father permit the dreadful events that we remember today? On the days when we say the Creed, we hear not once, but twice the words “for us.” Jesus dies for you and for me and for every person at every point in our human history. He dies for those who are not yet born and for every human being since the creation of the first of the human race.
Today, then, is a day for our times – not just for those hours of darkness on the hill of Calvary two thousand years ago. May the reality of the Saviour’s death find a home in the hearts of all, for His passion and death call forth a recognition of the need for the deepest compunction on the part of all humanity. This compunction opens the door to conversion and to the new life that we shall celebrate in two days’ time. This is a new life that brings peace, the peace the world cannot give – a peace for which all peoples thirst.
I invite you all to spend a little time now in the silence demanded by the events we mark today, as we prepare to offer our solemn intercessions in which we bring the needs of the whole world before the Father.
Image: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk