We all know St George as patron of England and tamer of dragons. The facts of his life are obscure, but his cult was very widespread in the east from that time on; when English soldiers went to the Holy Land on Crusade, they were inspired by this warrior saint.
In 1931, Jesus appeared to St Faustina, a Polish nun. He requested devotion to the Divine Mercy, recalling God's mercy, our own duty to show mercy & our trust in Jesus. Divine Mercy Sunday is the primary element of the devotion, celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter.
Jesus’s human death differs from ours in one crucial respect: whereas we lose our life, Christ chooses the moment of his death, when all is thus accomplished. So, the word recorded by St John, “It is finished”, is indicative: there is a sense of a mission accomplished. At no point is Christ’s will disengaged or passive in this saving work of the passion and cross. Why? Because God loves you and me, and his love is all-consuming, fully engaged and ever attentive.
Thanks to the Risen Lord Jesus and in union with him, death becomes the gateway to eternal life. Truly, henceforth, we need not be afraid, even in the face of death – not if we have faith in the resurrection and are united to Christ through love.
"I thirst." Before we can speak of our love, our longings and our desire for God, we must ponder and behold first of all the unfathomable love of God for man: a love that takes him to this day, Good Friday; a love that leads Christ to willingly suffer and be nailed to the cross. In going up to the cross, Christ will satisfy the deepest thirst of the human soul: our longing for God, for happiness, for divine love.
Jesus was lifted high on the cross in order to descend to the abyss of our suffering. He experienced our deepest sorrows: failure, loss of everything, betrayal by a friend, even abandonment by God. By experiencing in the flesh our deepest struggles and conflicts, he redeemed and transformed them.
