I’ve recently been reading a book
called The Last Week by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg about the
events of Holy Week from an historical perspective. Borg and Crossan call this day of Jesus’
crucifixion “the most solemn day of the Christian year”. On the surface, calling this day that Jesus
died “Good Friday” might seem to be incongruous, to be a contradiction in
terms. In Spanish, today is called “Holy Friday”, while in German it is called
“Sorrowful Friday”. But we Christians
know that calling today “Good Friday” is not a contradiction, because even
though the horror of Christ’s death occurred today, it is also the day that the
redemption of the world was accomplished.
I think we are able to better make the
connection between the death of Jesus on Good Friday with his resurrection
which we celebrate on Easter due to the Lenten observances we have been
practicing these last six weeks. By
praying the Way of the Cross these last weeks, we can make the connection
between the sufferings that Christ endured and the sufferings and sacrifices
that we endure in our own lives here on earth.
One of the prayers that is prayed at the ninth station, when Jesus falls
the third time, states: “Almighty and eternal God, you permitted your son to be
weakened, crushed, and profaned so that he might rise from the dead freed from
the ravages of sin. Help us to accept our
weaknesses and failings as forerunners of our glorious resurrection in union
with your son.” Hopefully, uniting our
sufferings, our weaknesses, and our failings to journey of Christ will help us
grow in our faith and help find meaning in our journey.
It is easy to say that we have faith
and to praise the Lord when things are going well in our lives, isn’t it? But when we go through those dark moments, we
probably want to cry in pain and agony in the words of the psalm that we heard
on Palm Sunday: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” In the passion that we heard today in the
Gospel, there were those who abandoned Jesus and who only thought of
themselves. We saw Peter deny
Jesus. We saw Judas betray him. We heard the crowd shouting to have Jesus
crucified. Yet, we also saw the Blessed Mother, Mary of Clopas, and Mary of
Magdala standing by the cross of Jesus out of love and loyalty. We saw Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea give
Jesus’ body a proper burial.
We have journey with Jesus through Holy
Week and we now honor him on this day that he died. We venerate his cross out of our faith, out of
our humility, out of knowing what the cross really means. I will never forget an image from my first
Good Friday liturgy as a priest. That
year, at St Richard parish in Jackson, we had all of our parishioners carrying
rocks during Lent, to symbolize our sins and all that is keeping us from
God. We had everyone come an place their
roots at the foot of the cross as a part of our Good Friday liturgy. One young lady from our parish had been very
ill for several years, had not had anything all of that time, and had her
nutrition brought into her body through tubes.
She rarely came to mass due to her medical condition, yet she was intent
on coming and placing her stone at the foot of Jesus. As she came up, one of the last to do so,
dragging the box that contained her IV tubes and drips with her, there was not
a dry eye in the entire congregation. I
thought – what a testimony it is to see this young lady united her suffering
with Christ’s suffering, to find meaning in her faith in the cross of Jesus and
in the redemption that it brings to us. Today, as we connect our lives with Jesus’
passion and his death on the cross, we have hope in the resurrection that is
come.
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