Here is the Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley on The Passion of the Lord, Good Friday, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh.

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My dear friends,

Last night in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper we accompanied the Lord as he began to tread the Via Dolorosa, the way of pain that leads Him to the Cross.

Today, he continues along that Way, humbly, willingly, for us.

Externally, he appears powerless, a victim, an innocent, powerless lamb led to the slaughter with no one to vindicate Him.

There is no one to rescue Him, no one to argue on His behalf, or offer a word or a gesture that can save Him.

There appears to be nothing he Himself can offer to say or do that will spare His life.

"On the Cross, Jesus reveals Himself as the Truth...He is the dazzling reality of the God who sets us free in His victory on the Cross." - Archbishop Leo Cushley. pic.twitter.com/PuFVROfa8U

— Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh (@archedinburgh) April 18, 2025

In mockery he takes the place of Barabbas, a murderer, a revolutionary, and yet he is the precise opposite: he is someone who brings life, not death, someone who wishes, not to destroy but to build up and to bless and to heal.

Jesus appears powerless in the face of raw power: three very different, competing interests combine to destroy Him:

• the local authorities are satisfied to accept a flimsy accusation of blasphemy;
• Herod wishes, cruelly, merely to be entertained, and cares little that someone will get killed in the process;
• and Pilate, the one man in Palestine with the power of life and death, the representative of the Roman state, a state proud of the rule of law in its empire, ultimately, eventually gives in to the mob.

The injustices and falsehoods pile up and triumph. Where is the truth in any of this?

At a crucial moment, Pilate poses this very question, the question about truth.

Pilate’s question appears at first almost casual, but it is a well-placed one.

In interview with Jesus, Pilate asks Him: “Are you the king of the Jews? […] Your own people have handed you over, what have you done?”

Jesus says, “I have stood up for the truth.”

And famously, Pilate replies “Truth? What is truth?”

This being St John’s Gospel, there are of course several things going on here all at once.

Pilate is an educated man, he knows philosophy, he knows that this could make for an interesting academic conversation.

But here, his comment is ultimately rhetorical, and he can hardly be thinking of conducting a discussion about truth.

This is not the place and time.

He can see that truth is secondary to what is unfolding here.

More likely is that he is working out how to keep the peace; if he should spare Jesus from death, and if it’s going to lead to a riot, and less about if it’s the right thing to do.

So, at first, he tells the mob that he finds no case.

By this, he tests the water, but he quickly realizes that Jesus’s death is the only way to restore calm - and so Jesus is condemned to death for pragmatism, convenience, for the sake of the peace.

What this also means of course is that truth is irrelevant. The authorities press their demands, the mob threaten a riot, and the innocent die. Truth is nowhere to be seen.

Except that in the midst of this injustice, Truth is present; but it is hiding in plain sight. Truth is standing there before them all.

St John is telling us that Jesus Christ is the Truth.  He not only speaks the truth, or represents the truth.

Jesus is the Truth. He tells us that He came into the world for this.

Jesus Christ is the Truth of the Most High God, and the truth will set us free.

And it’s not 24 hours since Jesus, the night before, told Thomas and the Apostles “I am the truth”.

Jesus Christ is the Truth of the Most High God, and the truth will set us free.

So that, even as Jesus is bound, arrested, and condemned before Pilate, even as He is shortly to be taken, bound, to the Cross, and to be nailed to it in mockery and to die an impotent spectacle, He is the one setting everyone free.

On the Cross, Jesus reveals Himself as the Truth, and that Truth sets us free.

The objective, simple truth, the reality here, is that the Son of God willingly and purposefully dies and does so for us all.

The Truth revealed in the person of Jesus stands before Pilate.  Today, that Truth is not to be found in Roman law, or the caprice of the mob, or the expedient politics of the day.

Jesus Christ, is the Way, our way through death to life.

And today He is the Truth: He the dazzling reality of the God who sets us free in His victory on the Cross.

Archbishop Cushley tonight celebrated Mass of the Lord's Supper, which marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum.

It is an important time for the Church because at the last supper Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the source and summit of our Faith.

Holy Thursday: The Blessed Sacrament is taken to the Altar of Repose at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh. The Cathedral remains open for prayer at the Altar of Repose until 11:30pm. pic.twitter.com/H8p0U8597o

— Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh (@archedinburgh) April 17, 2025

He also washed the feet of his disciples as an example of loving service to others and that is what priests do at the Holy Thursday Mass.

Archbishop Cushley said: "Tonight we accompany Jesus on his way to Calvary.

"We anticipate his sacrifice on the Cross; we do so solemnly this evening in communion with him and with all Christians throughout the world; and we keep in mind its intimate links with what will take place tomorrow.

"Tonight, in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes for us not only food for the journey, but the very Way for us."

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Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, 17 April 2025

My dear friends,

Tonight we accompany Jesus on his way to Calvary.

We start with the Lord at table at the Last Supper, the origins of the celebration of the Eucharist so central to our memory of the Lord, keeping his memory alive and his presence among us in the Eucharist.

As Catholics, we see clearly the link between the Lord’s Supper and the Cross on Calvary and, knowing the trajectory of the story, we can see that it is a way that leads from the Upper Room, to Calvary, to the tomb, and indeed to the empty tomb.

And the whole three days are a kind of a “way”.

The Way

We sometimes refer to events tomorrow, Good Friday, in Jerusalem as the via Dolorosa or the via Crucis or the Way of the Cross.

But the term “the way” was also one of the very earliest equivalent names for “the Church”, and we find it in the Acts of the Apostles and elsewhere.

But the use of the word the “way” that we find even there, and about being faithful to the “way” has overtones of something else.

Clearly “the way” can suggest a manner of living, or a means to reach a place or purpose or object.

In that case, “the way” becomes an early stand-in for a word like “community” or “assembly”, it works well, and did so for a time in the early days of the Church.

But “the way” as a term also takes us back to something very important that Jesus says to the Apostles, while talking with Philip and Thomas at the last Supper, in fact tonight.

Just before the passage we heard in tonight’s gospel, Jesus says to the Apostles, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me […] and you know the way where I am going”.

Thomas replies to this, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?” And Jesus replies, “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one can come to the Father except through me.” He then turns to Philip and adds, “From now on you know the Father and you have seen him.”

Two essential things for us emerge from this that we ought to keep in mind across all these three days.

First of all, we should remember that Jesus is the Son of God and that in him we see God himself. To see him is to see God.

Not only that, this means that God himself is going to his death for us on Calvary tomorrow, and that he anticipates the sacrifice of the Cross here and now, at the Last Supper, tonight.

The second thing for us to keep in mind is that Jesus is the Way: he is God among his people, showing us, not just a way to live but a way to life, the way to life eternal in Jesus Christ.

This Way, the way to life, does not eliminate the pain of life or the necessity of death, but it transforms death from a dead end into a passage, a passing through death that leads us to life in Christ.

Food for the journey

One of the most beautiful rites that we have as Catholics is when we are able to receive holy Communion before we die.

The prayers are particularly powerful and describe the Eucharist as “food for the journey”, the journey through death and into life.

For this reason, we call it Viaticum, that is, quite literally, food for the journey.  And tonight, we have a chance to see how this fits perfectly into our understanding of what the Lord does here at table, the night before he dies.

Our Eucharist tonight is viaticum, it is food for the journey, as we anticipate and associate ourselves with the Lord’s terrible and wonderful journey through suffering and death, and into life.

Tonight, then, Jesus anticipates his passage through death on the Cross tomorrow, in the Last Supper celebrated now.

In it, we can anticipate his sacrifice on the Cross; we do so solemnly this evening in communion with him and with all Christians throughout the world; and we keep in mind its intimate links with what will take place tomorrow.

Tonight, in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes for us not only food for the journey, but the very Way for us.

The Lord’s Supper tonight is not just a way to live but a way to life, the way to life eternal in Jesus Christ.

More than 70 priests gathered at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh last night for the annual Chrism Mass.

The Chrism Mass is where the bishop consecrates the sacred chrism (a mixture of olive oil and balsam) and blesses the other holy oils (oil of catechumens and oil of the sick). 

These oils are then taken home by priests and appointed parish volunteers for use in the parish over the year.

The Chrism Mass is a sign of the close bond between the bishop and the priests of the diocese, and priests renew their commitment to their ministry. 

In his Homily, Archbishop Cushley said: "As the clergy renew their promises this evening...may we who already have the gift of the Spirit learn again to let the living Lord speak to us in the depths of our hearts; and, encouraged and strengthened by that indwelling gift, may we in our turn give the warmest of welcomes to those joining us this Easter."

Homily of Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh, Chrism Mass, 15 April 2025, St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh  

My dear brother deacons and priests, dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A very warm welcome to our Chrism Mass in this Jubilee Year, dedicated by the Holy Father to the theme of hope.

This celebration not only distinguishes us in our various services to each other, it also gathers us in unity around our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

We have all been anointed, we all share the same Spirit, we have all been called, ultimately, to the same dignity, that is, Life with Christ.

We take our different places, as St Paul says, in Christ’s Mystical Body, but always with a view to the same end, the same good, the same purpose: union with Christ, and its essential corollary, union with each other.

And union with each other is no mere optional extra.  Christianity is not a private relationship.

The sign of peace that we offer each other, during Mass, is no mere handshake or peck on the cheek.

The Spirit is at hand in each one of us, to comfort and encourage, and to strengthen hearts and limbs that are weary.

It is a sign of communion with Christ and with each other, a modest token to be sure, but the sign of an eternal and solemn pledge of love, of loyalty, and of union with all present as we gather in the Spirit around our living Lord Jesus Christ.

The Spirit that we receive then, especially in the Sacrament of Confirmation, is like the mortar that builds us poor, small, living stones into a great spiritual house, fit for the Most High God to dwell in.

That loyalty towards each other often goes unremarked, unsaid, until tests of it come along, and of course, tests do come, sometimes from within and sometimes from without.  They come in the form of words and gestures and actions, intended or not.

They come in scandal that dismays us, they wound a pride or self-regard that is never far from the surface.

Then our love and loyalty can be tested bitterly, but at such times, we need to remember that the Spirit, which was poured so generously into our hearts, is not a distant souvenir of an event long past; the Spirit is alive and active among us.

It is a Spirit of comfort, of healing, of gladness; it is a Spirit that brings good news, and a joy to be shared by the whole people.

The Spirit is at hand in each one of us, to comfort and encourage, and to strengthen hearts and limbs that are weary.

If only we would learn to be still again before the Lord, to be trusting, humble and open in His presence, and to listen to the Spirit that is within us, ready to refresh, console and inspire us anew.

As we hear today, in a passage from Isaiah, sought out and read to us by the Lord Himself as he stands in the synagogue in Nazareth, the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, today, here and now.  It is a Spirit of comfort, of healing, of gladness; it is a Spirit that brings good news, and a joy to be shared by the whole people.

This year is a Holy Year, and so it is also a time of liberty from the bonds of sin and sadness, as the Holy Father has emphasised, a Jubilee Year dedicated to hope.

We see deeply troubling events unfolding in the world in these days, and we must wonder sometimes what there is to be hopeful about, but the Lord is still at hand to assist us.

Men and women of goodwill, inside the Church and outside it, still work to identify the common good, and having identified it, to pursue it and to promote it.

The bullies, and the powerful will one day reap their just desserts.

And the just will receive the reward of their patience and their labours and their goodness.

This is the message of this jubilee year, and it is the message of our Chrism Mass texts.

The spirit of the Lord has come abundantly upon our Lord Jesus, as he has shared that same Spirit with all of us here today.

As the clergy renew their promises this evening, and as the whole diocese prepares to welcome hundreds of new Catholics into the Church this Easter Vigil, many of them young adults, may we who already have the gift of the Spirit learn again to let the living Lord speak to us in the depths of our hearts; and, encouraged and strengthened by that indwelling gift, may we in our turn give the warmest of welcomes to those joining us this Easter.

Thank you for listening, and may God bless all your preparations for the Triduum!