Have you ever stopped to really think about why… why he did this for us? He could have avoided it, he could have called his angels to rescue him… he could have tried to make peace. But he didn’t. He warned us; he told us that it was going to be turbulent… and it was, especially for him. Betrayed, arrested, tortured, and crucified. 

Did he know this was coming? And did he know forever, or did he find out at the transfiguration on the mountain? That he was marching toward an awful, painful, humiliating death? And yet he did it all for us. We know that intellectually right, but do we know it emotionally? And do we know why he did it and what all this means for us? Jesus Christ needed to fix a breach in our relationship with God, and to understand that, we need to go back to the beginning.

It all started with Adam and Eve in the garden. They did what God told them not to do and the relationship with God was changed. Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and while God still loved them, the path to our heavenly Father, our path to eternity… was broken. A breach was created between us and God that we could not cross without a bridge. Things changed. 

Despite this, God hoped. He hoped and longed for us to seek him, to turn away from sin, and to fulfill what he wanted from his children. He sent prophet after prophet to Israel – Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah… who told us to repent and seek him. People didn’t really listen, or maybe they understood intellectually, but not emotionally, where love dwells. After all the prophets, he sent his only Son. “Surely they will listen to my Son.” 

Jesus and his Father had something in mind for us. In addition to Jesus teaching and leading us back to the Father, he was also sent to fix that breach, to rebuild that bridge to the Father that was broken so long ago. A path to the Father and to eternity. That was the mission of Jesus Christ. But how did he rebuild that bridge and how do we get on it to have access to the Father for eternity? That brings us to this week, Holy Week, where Jesus rebuilds the bridge and gets us access to it. 

Holy Thursday, the last supper that institutes the Eucharist. “This is my body that will be given up for you.” And, “Take this, all of you, for this is my Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.” The Eucharist, our way to receive his Body and Blood, and by doing so to become more and more the Body of Christ. This is how we get on that bridge to the Father. 

Good Friday is about rebuilding that bridge. Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, freely offered and lovingly accepted by God. By taking on our sins in death and being resurrected on Easter morning, he conquers death and opens the way to heaven. The bridge is built and in fact, Jesus is that bridge for us! 

Now we can approach the Father because at this Altar we receive Jesus in the Eucharist and we become more and more the Body of Christ at every Mass. And, as Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Well, when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become the body of Christ and we thus have access to the Father through Jesus because we are the Body of Christ.

That’s why he did it.

That’s the gift he lovingly gave us 2000 years ago.

That’s the gift he gives us at this Altar at every Mass.

That’s what Holy Week accomplishes for us.