Good Friday message: Jesus preached radical unity, says Pune bishop

Good Friday teaches us to work selflessly and relentlessly for the well-being of all without discrimination, says Pune bishop

Reverend Fr Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Pune, on the eve of observance of Good Friday, said the day is at the heart of the Christian faith.

Good Friday calls upon us not to impose a cross on others but take up their cross and reduce and lighten their suffering. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Dabre said Jesus Christ, who is merciful, kind, patient and forgiving, proclaimed freedom of the children of God, unlike the priests and scholars of that period.

The bishop said the religious leaders of Jesus’ time could neither appreciate nor accept the revolutionary religious reform that he initiated. He said the history reveals that any religion introduced a new vital and impulse of life into society.

“The message of Jesus is liberty of all children of God. He broke down the walls of separation, division and discrimination among men and women, sinners and saints, insiders and outsiders, natives and foreigners, rich and poor. This was the message of radical unity, freedom and equality of all human beings,” Dabre said, adding that Good Friday thus calls upon us not to impose a cross on others but take up their cross and reduce and lighten their suffering.

“Good Friday teaches us to work selflessly and relentlessly for the well-being of all without discrimination,” Dabre said.