Yesterday was Good Friday Mass and Father Samuel started his homily quite differently...
 "I have decided to follow Jesus..." The choir and the rest of the congregation joined him. "Â
The cross before me, the world behind me (x3) No turning back, no turning back!"Â
"All the time" we repliedÂ
- as he normally begins....Â
 Fr Samuel asked the congregation "Is the world behind? Or is it in front of you?" In my mind I paused...Â
 I'm pretty sure we've all vaguely heard this in some sermon or another. From Priest to Pastor, Vicar to even maybe a Bible studies leader. How often do we (I) give this question an honest answer.Â
 My initial reaction, meaning well was "Yeah, of course the world is behind me..." I delved a little further into my conscience "Is it? Well, it should be... it will be... now... soon... Hey Steph! You're not listening to the homily!"Â
 Father Samuel went on to reminded us about the imagery of Christ on the cross - superficially a horribly desperate scene; Pontius Pilate washing his hands of a man he knows is wrongly convicted, the Pharisees seeing to it that Jesus is crucified, Soldiers forcing thorns into the skull of Christ, nailing Him to the cross, hanging Him high and proceeding to cast lots for His clothing. Crowds shouting and spitting at a 'defeated man'. A mother watching the child she bore suffer a bitter death. In all, a bloodied Christ, the victim of the people's sin and hatred. What scene is more gruesome, more horrible? Who would want to open their eyes and see this? But when we sing, 'the cross before me' it's really this scene that we put in before of our eyes.Â
 "Look at the cross! Not the people around the cross, look at the cross"       Fr Samuel trumpeted, giving us a way to keep the cross in front of us.Â
 You see the scene around the cross reminds us about our world. There are the hateful, the persecutors and the jeers like the Pharisees, soldiers and crowds. There are the willfully blind like Pilate and there are also those who are in pain and who have lost like Mary because of how cruel the world is at times...but when we look at Christ on the cross, knowing that He was born for this, knowing the fullness of what His death achieves, don't the going ons around Him seem less important, less powerful and in some respects, though a saddening scene doesn't the sadness seem worth it? I'm saying quite a few things here in a round about way. And also Iâm briefly straying away from the jist of Fr. Samuel's sermon but I'll link back to it.Â
 THE CROSS IS WORTH IT. We don't want to look at it because it's painful to see and a hard commitment to make so we put the world in front and conceed to what we know is wrong. By not looking at the cross, we risk being like Pilate turning a blind eye following the concensus of others. Instead we should be affected by cross. Think of Mary standing by looking into the eyes of her son, her heart braking in the very moment. In a way this should be us seeing the extremity of the cross but let's look past Mary, for she too is just amongst those around the cross. For at the crucifixion scene she most likely didn't have the complete understanding of what the cross would come to mean, which she would later realise. We, however, know what Christ made possible after His death and resurrection and so when our mind's eye surveys the cross, let us look into the eyes of Christ, not sorrowful but hopeful that the salvation He made possible can be ours too. Doing this is what makes the cross worth it in our lives.Â
 So the challenge we have in this world is not to be amongst the Pharisees, soldiers and crowds, hating Christ and being hateful to life and humanity in general. Not to be like Pilate, deep down aware of Christ, the man on the cross but choosing not to look, choosing the world, the easier option instead. But if we focus on the image of Christ on the cross, the peripheral will vanish, our eyes will meet with our bloodied Saviour and acknowledge what He has done... once we've committed to just looking at the eyes of Christ on the cross I'm sure we'll all sing "no turning back" with complete confidence and conviction.Â
 God Bless and Happy EasterÂ
