By Sr. Teresa Joseph, FMA –
The Good Friday
Good Friday is the day of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, fixing our glance at Jesus on the cross, we get a deeper understanding of how full of love are the words pronounced by Him at the Last Supper: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” Mk 14:24. Jesus offered His life in sacrifice for the remission of the sins of humanity.
The liturgy of Good Friday begins with the prostration of the Priests. It is a particular gesture of veneration towards the altar that is empty, deprived of everything, this is to evoke the Crucifixion in the hour of the Passion. The silence is broken with a tender prayer with which the Celebrant appeals to the Mercy of God and ask the Father eternal protection for those the Son has acquired with his blood giving his life for us.
The Proclamation of the Passion
An ancient tradition reserves for this day the proclamation of the Passion according to St. John as the climaxing moment of the liturgy of the Word. In this evangelical narration, the impressive majesty of Christ who hands over himself to death with the fullness of freedom of love is highlighted. The Lord responds courageously to those who have come to capture him: “I am he,” When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground Jn 18:5-6.
Journeying with Jesus a bit ahead, we hear Him respond to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” Jn 18:36. What is startling is how the Lord till the very last moment places his trust in His Father, and in this way conquers the world.
The Universal Prayer
The proclamation of the Passion of the Lord is followed by the universal prayer. The liturgy focuses attention on the tree of the Cross: the glorious instrument of human redemption. The veneration of the holy Cross is an expression of faith and a proclamation of the victory of Jesus over evil, sin and over death. With Jesus we will also win because this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.
The Church wraps the Cross with honour and reverence: with simplicity and deep faith the Celebrant and other Priests kiss the Cross and pay their homage. Then the faithful offer their adoration, praise and thanks to the Cross in the midst of hymns that celebrate the victorious character of the Cross. Expressions loaded with faith like: we adore your Cross, Lord; we praise and glorify your glorious resurrection etc. fill the air. We profess with ever growing conviction: “We venerate your Cross, Lord; we praise and glorify your holy resurrection: because of the tree joy has come into the whole world.”
From the Wood of the Cross Joy Brims Over
The wood of the Cross is so dear and so significant that from it the joy of salvation is spread to the whole world. It is a mysterious union of death and life in which God wants us to plunge ourselves. It is a combination of experiences: at times it moves us to renew the glorious impulse that led the Lord to Jerusalem. At other moments it fills our being with that pain of agony that the Lord experienced at Calvary… the glory of his triumph over death and over sin. But it is always, love, glorious, sorrowful, and glorious in the heart of Christ.
A Logic That Surpasses Every Other Logic
With Jesus on the Cross, we are before a logic that surpasses the human logic. A God who not only became man dies for humanity. The passion of Jesus continues today in the suffering of human beings. Yes, Good Friday is rightly a day full of sadness, is at the same time, an auspicious day to reinvigorate our hope and to carry each of our crosses with humility, confidence and abandonment to God, certain of his support and his victory. Fittingly in the liturgy we sing: Ave, O cross, our only hope!
Jesus, Man of sorrows, by the “cross’s royal road, lead us to the throne of God, There to sing triumphantly Heaven’s glorious litany” (Holy Week hymn n.20).