Being human means dying every day. We do not easily realize this when we are young. As our twenties pass into our thirties and forties, however, we begin to discover that we must relinquish a great deal of what we had hoped for in life. Our early successes fade into the past more and more quickly, and new successes are more difficult to achieve as the years follow relentlessly.
The life of Jesus Christ was, for many of His followers, an immense disappointment. After the healings, the miracles, the inspiring teachings, how could this young man allow Himself to be brutally tortured and executed? But the same question can be asked of every human life. Each one is a kind of miracle; each one holds a particular kind of promise. And each one is no less mercilessly snuffed out at the end—or so it would seem.
The mystery of Jesus’ Crucifixion and Death shows us the lengths to which God will go in order to give us life. In solidarity with broken humanity, the immortal Son of God passes from the unrealized possibilities of this present life into the mysterious reality of another life which is accessible only to faith. He is also the Son of Man, our Brother, and He invites us to make the same act of trust in the Father that He Himself did.