Lenten Meditations: Good Friday

Apr 10, 2020 by

Fri
Apr 10
am: 95, 22
pm: 40, 54
Lam 3:1-9, 19-33 1 Pet 1:10-20 am: Jn 13:36-38
pm: Jn 19:38-42

 

GOOD FRIDAY

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: Some have learned that the word Good is applied to today based on the idea that something good, namely redemption occurred on this day. That is may be a simple way to frame it but not historical. Some scholars suggest that is from the idea that this day was “God’s Friday” (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag. A more likely explanation would be it is based on a Medieval use of the word good where it meant “holy.” Thus “Good Friday” would have come from “Holy Friday,” the same way we have Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday. Byzantine Christians ( Eastern Rite Catholics and Orthodox Churches  call this day “Great and Holy Friday”, or simply “Great Friday”.

The custom of venerating the cross on Good Friday probably originated in Jerusalem in the 7th or 8th century, and continues to this day in many Western Churches. Pre-sanctified Masses are referenced in the documents of the Quinisext Council, which was held in AD 692, which means the practice pre-dates the seventh century. The Council mentions pre-sanctified liturgies as occurring primarily during Lent.

The liturgy of the western church   includes the Passion proclamation, Veneration of the Cross and Mass of the Pre-Sanctified. The veneration of the Cross which calls us to humility when we revere and venerate the wood of the cross, because our Savior was nailed there, and gave his life for us there.   MEDITATION OF THE DAY: Despite what people think, Good Friday deals not with the past alone. It is the day of Sin, the day of Evil, the day on which the Church invites us to realize the awful reality and power in “this world that sin has.” For sin and evil have not disappeared, but, on the contrary, still constitute a way of life for our world. It was as true in Jerusalem then as it is in Jersey today.  No matter what local we find ourselves as we hear the Passion in today’s liturgy we must ponder this question: “On what side, with whom would we have been, had we lived in Jerusalem under Pilate?”

 

This is the question that cannot be avoided as one participates in the Passion proclamation. In this powerful story we are faced again with the harsh reality that the people of this world then and now make choices which means there is a preference of darkness to light, evil to good, death to life. That is the drama of life isn’t it? How we deal with these polemics that either tear life apart or renew it?  In this story today we see the fullness of the incarnation which through this kenotic act Christ redeems us and makes us citizens of the City of God, a city of light and life. Good Friday should attract us not repel us because this is not about mere darkness and shadows but the reality, about grace and mercy, and about the reconciliation of God and man. That should grab and hold our hearts and souls.

 

PRAYER OF THE DAY: O God, who by the Passion of Christ your Son, our Lord,
abolished the death inherited from ancient sin by every succeeding generation,
grant that just as, being conformed to him, we have borne by the law of nature
the image of the man on earth, so by the sanctification of grace we may bear the image of the Man of heaven, through Christ our Lord.

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”.–C.S. Lewis

 

Holy Week Discipline Use The Passion of the Christ – as a tool to help you contemplate Christ’s suffering during these sacred hours. Discuss your reaction? How does this affect you and those you view it with?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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