Readings (pg.1) | Gospel (pg.2) | Reflection (pg.3)
REFLECTION
ON this day of fasting and prayer, SILENCE is the most appropriate, the wisest response in the presence of death. Even with the most “normal” of deaths, the human mind cannot grasp.
It’s better not to talk or write too much. It’s better to shut up more and let our spirit discern and learn. There are just too many questions about death the answer to which we know not, unless we can take the first step and build it to a leap in faith.
That is not possible without a deep and submissive silence to hear the whisper of the Spirit of God who reveals the Mystery of the Cross, and to overcome us with gratitude and thanksgiving.
It is time to go into our inner self, to know Him who died for us, to see our stand as we live and face the daily actions and reactions of sinful and fallen creatures, the human condition, and come up with some inner, fundamental and true decisions for the Lord, our Crucified Saviour.
Today, we are faced with the Death of all deaths, the Death of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. His was the cruellest, the most unjust, yet it was the most unique for He died willingly and lovingly, driven by an absolute faith in God and love of enemies, that was stronger than the fear of death.
All of us have been born to die. This is the only Death we wish to die, the Death of Christ! This is the reason why we are baptized, why we are Christian. Why we live at all.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death!
What would be the outcome of His Death? But today is Good Friday, not Easter. We shouldn’t and cannot jump to victory, to the Resurrection; that was three days away. Today we must focus on the Death of the Lord.
And on Good Friday itself, there is only one truth we should look at in the Death of all deaths: The utter and absolute FAITHFULNESS of God FOR US in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Jesus faced His final trials victoriously, a quiet victory firmly founded on the confidence that it was His Father’s will to love and save sinners who knew not what they were doing.
Will we too be faithful, come what may, and peacefully leave the outcome of everything especially unjust sufferings to God in our life? Will we bear the Cross with Christ only trusting that it shall never been in vain?
In the meantime, those whom He loved and offered the ultimate sacrifice continue to screen their faces, mock, jeer, relishing their vengeance for being reminded of their false upbringing, completely oblivious that actually theirs are the very sins, the sufferings, and the death He bears!
Who was He? Who was He in the true design and will of God? Who was He to us? Who are we to Him? What happened in the end? And perhaps, what would be the outcome?
The Suffering Servant
The answers are given by Isaiah’s masterpiece description of the Suffering Servant in the first reading (Is 52:13-53:12). In deep silence we must read and reflect on this. We must grasp it today Good Friday. In silence, let’s face the Word of God and let God introduce us to our Suffering Saviour and be proud of Him and be thankful.
The second reading from Hebrews tells us not to lose heart for the Saviour now is truly seated at the right hand of God, for us. We must appreciate what He has done and imitate His faithfulness, His understanding, His compassion. For he was like us, tempted in all things but did not sin.
He understood what it meant to be human, our weaknesses. Jesus Christ is OUR High Priest. He was our understanding Saviour; He is our understanding Priest. Be faithful, as He was faithful to the end, and is faithfully interceding for us now.
The Passion of Jesus Christ according to St. John does not seem to draw our attention directly on the terrible sufferings, the extreme physical, mental and spiritual pains of Jesus.
Perhaps St. John has to trust our common sense that we should know and feel how horrible it is to be taken for a sinner, to be captured, put on two sham trials, became victim of some political game, found guilty, condemned to death by crucifixion, insulted, mocked, beaten, and jeered at until the end, until all alone, lifted up on the Cross, He finally cried: “It is accomplished” and gave up His spirit.
In St. John the following is clear. Jesus faced His final trials victoriously, a quiet victory firmly founded on the confidence that it was His Father’s will to love and save sinners who knew not what they were doing. He did not resist, He did not disdain the inhumanity of His enemies, lest to be bitter against them. It was all about them and for them.
He set His face like flint; He was unabashed. What a hero, what a man of God, what a God-man!!!
Bring out the crucifix in your home, place it before you. With Mary the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, the Mother of Sorrows at the foot of the same Cross, let us say and repeat the whole day today the same prayer we have said at every stop of the Stations of the Cross throughout Lent. This, after a short invitation in Latin and English from today’s liturgy.
Ecce lignum crucis, in quo salus mundi pependit. (Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.)
Venite, adoremus! (Come, let us adore).
Prayer:
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. Because, by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. (x whole day)
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