Reflection for Good Friday

Good Friday is a powerful moment in the context of a three-day liturgy that contains rituals that enable us to deal with the passion and death of our Lord Jesus. It also allows us to know how to deal with suffering, pain, confusion and deaths of our day and of our world. So many today feel helpless and paralyzed, not knowing what to do.  

Our Good Friday rituals include four movements: storytelling, prayers of intercession, reverencing the cross, and receiving the body of Christ. We do this together as a community of believers. 

Today, our storytelling has begun with the proclamation of the Passion which has guided us through the sufferings and events that led to the death of Jesus on the cross. This story is our story of salvation. We hear every aspect of the drama unfolding before us. The overwhelming love that Jesus has for us is beyond our comprehension.  

In our general intercessions, we pray for the Pope, all religious and laity, those preparing for baptism, Jewish people, believers and non-believers, those who serve in public office, all in troubled parts of the world, all those in need. These prayers of the church are our response to the story.  

Our procession and reverence of the Cross unites us with Jesus and with one another.  We bow, genuflect, touch, and kiss the cross. Our body, our suffering is united to that of Jesus by our physical interaction with the cross. Pope Francis writes:

“By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times.”

Pope Francis

In receiving communion, we give witness to our belief that we are one in the body of Christ. Community heals us and provides us with hope.  

Our reality today is a Good Friday. We experience our world and our culture leading us in directions that seem to benefit the rich, alienate the poor and strangers and keep Gospel values from becoming a way in which to live. We feel hopeless and helpless. These four movements in today’s liturgy are a source of comfort and strength as we unite our suffering and pain with Jesus on the cross.   

As storytellers, we tell our stories, we talk and share our experiences with one another. Our voices need to be heard, and we need to speak out for the voiceless. Our stories tell of the marvels of God’s work among us and through us. They are full of hope, longing and redemption. 

We are challenged to pray, to intercede, not only for ourselves and for the many others who are suffering but for the needs of our church and our world. Our prayers can lift us up as well as others. The Scriptures invite us to

“Pray without ceasing.” 

We carry our cross with help from one another. We help others to carry theirs.   Allowing ourselves and others to embrace the struggles in a tangible way makes our experiences real and allows our body, soul, and spirit to express what needs to be transformed. It keeps us from becoming self-centered and paralyzed. We focus on the redemption and salvation that Jesus won for us by his death on the cross. 

The act of receiving communion together means we are never alone. There is such strength when we come together. The bonds of community give us courage and assurance that we are never alone on our journey.

When we walk together, we have the power to make a difference. As we listen with the ear of our heart, we transform and change ourselves and others. Our mission is to be hope for our world, pilgrims of hope, an enduring hope in which w proclaim that love is stronger than death, that love has conquered death. We are participants in this great love story of salvation. Like Jesus, we are called to be courageous in our faith, lavish in our hope and wildly generous in our love.