FRIDAY, GOOD FRIDAY
Is 52:13–53:12 Ps 31 Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9 Jn 18:1–19:42
INTO YOUR HANDS, O LORD, WE COMMEND OUR SPIRITS
Good Friday draws us into the deepest mystery of love; a love that does not turn away from suffering, betrayal, or death, but enters fully into them to redeem them. Today’s Scriptures weave together prophecy, lament, priesthood, and Passion into one sacred story: the story of the Suffering Servant.
In Isaiah 52:13–53:12, we encounter a figure both exalted and despised. “He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering.” Centuries before Calvary, the prophet saw what love would cost. On Good Friday, the Church recognizes in this servant none other than Jesus Christ. What Isaiah foresaw becomes flesh in the Passion proclaimed in the Gospel of John. In the garden, Jesus does not hide. When the soldiers come, he steps forward: “I am he.” Even in arrest, he remains sovereign. In trial, he speaks truth. In crucifixion, he loves.
Good Friday reminds us that faith is not the absence of anguish. Jesus enters into pain. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He offered prayers and supplications “with loud cries and tears.” Our Saviour is not distant from human suffering. He knows fear and sorrow. He knows the weight of obedience when it costs everything. Hebrews also declares that through suffering he was made perfect; perfect not in moral correction, but in the fullness of loving obedience. On the cross, Jesus reveals what it means to love to the end. He forgives those who crucify him. He entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple. He thirsts; not only for water, but for souls. And finally, he says, “It is finished.” Not a cry of defeat, but of completion.
The Cross still speaks to us! The Suffering Servant is present in our daily struggles. When we gaze upon the crucifix, we see what we are worth before God. Today the Church is silent. The altar is bare. We kneel before the mystery. Good Friday invites us to trust when we cannot see, to love when it costs, to forgive when it hurts, to place our own lives into the Father’s hands.
Response: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!
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