Our Lord Crucified

Friday of the Passion of Our Lord (Good Friday)

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Gospel of John 18:1-19:42

Jesus answered,“My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world,  my attendants would be fighting  to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him,“Then you are a king?”Jesus answered,“You say I am a king.For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

Last night's Good Friday service was solemn yet beautiful.  How strange to see the altar stripped bare with no candles, flowers, or decorations.  Even the tabernacle laid empty and abandoned.  Parishioners continued to genuflect and even bless themselves with holy water even though "symbolically" Christ is no longer with us until the Easter Vigil. 

Before the beginning of the liturgy, the deacon read beautiful words from St. Thomas Aquinas.  This excerpt is taken from "A Lenten Journey with Jesus Christ an St. Thomas Aquinas" by Paul Keller, O.P.  These words brought even greater meaning to the veneration of the cross.

Now, there are trees that have flowers and fruits all of the time.  In a similar way the tree of the Cross has flowers all of the time. See that the wood of the Cross has produced a triple fruit...First, the fruit of cleansing, because through the Cross we are liberated from sins... Of what does sanctification consist?  It makes someone cling to the Cross.  It is also true that man, alienated from God through sin, is reconciled through Christ.....So ministers of the Church use the sign of the Cross in any sanctification...Third, the fruit of glorification...Through sin humankind is excluded from paradise, and therefore Christ has suffered on the Cross, so that through the Cross the gate from earthly things to the heavenly things would open.  Hence the Cross of Christ is signified by the ladder that Jacob saw....All the saints go up to the heavens by the power of the Cross..."

We mourn the lost of Our Lord who was truly human.  He greatly suffered pain and agony with his flesh scourged and beaten.  Yet, he underwent such cruelty for our sake!  We take on the flesh of Christ when we imitate his teachings and his ways.  We must embrace the cross at all times constantly remembering Christ's infinite love for all of his children.  

-J.