Great Friday

O Jesus, a world that looks at things from below, whose eyes are estranged from the transcendence of Your gifts, is unable to look upward. On the day they crucified You, they told You to come down from the Cross. They stipulated that Your descent be a sign of Your glory. Literally, they said: "If you are the Son of God, come down..." (Matthew 27:40). He who wrote about this stipulation had previously written that the tempter used with You the same language on the day You departed, after Your baptism, into the wilderness (Matthew 4:3-6). This is the parlance of the tempter, echoed by those who, like him, are ignorant, that is, those who refuse to understand that through Your life-giving Cross, You have opened the path for us to eternal life. Who is worthy of this joy? Yes, I am sad. Yet, I am also joyful. These words are true. I am not rejecting the path of life, but I am laying open before You my desire that You heal my eyes from looking downward. I do not want You to come down from the Cross. I hate this language. I want You to heal me from my sins that have lifted You up to it. O God, crucified for my sake, have mercy on me.
(from below: ref. John 8:23)