(Courtesy: Fr Tony Kadavil)
Good Friday (I) 2006: Seven Words from the Cross
Biblical anecdote: Hagar at Beer-Sheba versus Mary at Calvary: "Let me not watch to see the child die," (Genesis 21:16) lamented Hagar, after putting her child Ishmael, son of Abraham, down under a shrub, and then going and sitting down opposite him, about a bowshot away. Hagar was the slave and maid servant of Abraham, voluntarily given to him as his substitute wife by his legal wife Sarah, who had proved barren. But later when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, Sarah became jealous of Hagar and her son and insisted that Hagar and her son should be cast out. Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away. "As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, the water in the skin was used up," (Gen. 21: 14-15) and Ishmael was about to die of dehydration in the scorching heat of the sun. It was then that the broken hearted mother Hagar prayed to God, lamenting that she could not watch her son dying of thirst in the hot desert. The book of Genesis tells us how God intervened and saved Hagar and her son. Centuries later at Calvary we see another mother - Mary - remaining at the foot of the cross of her son Jesus, determined to keep watch with him as he died for the sins of mankind and to hear his last sermon of seven words from the cross. We too are invited today to hear what she heard and to see how her son died as our savior. Let us repeat what Peter said at the mountain of Transfiguration: "Lord, it is good that we stay here."