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Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
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In the first reading, our attention is on the servant who is lifted up and exalted, a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross. The suffering servant is before our very eyes, one who was despised, rejected, bore our suffering, pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. The suffering Christ relates to every single person on earth. We all encounter suffering, pain, and rejection in our lives. But through the Cross, we are healed and brought into communion with God.
As the psalmist says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”, so too do we commend to the Lord all aspects of our lives, including those wounds and sufferings that we encounter. We turn to Him as our refuge, trusting that He will save us in His love, and will never abandon us.
The Letter to the Hebrews brings to light that Jesus learnt to obey through suffering and became for all who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. Suffering is never an end in itself, but is transformative, till we encounter glory, peace and love for all eternity. We believe in a God who suffered for us. God is in the midst of suffering.
The Passion according to John sums up a God who sent His only Son, not to condemn the world, but to restore it back into communion with Him. The message of the Passion is a message of God’s love for us. It is a manifestation of the outpouring of God's love for every single person. When we venerate the Cross, we see a sign of love, a sign of a God who is the midst of our pain and suffering. We ought never to despair.
Good Friday is the day of the cross. In the liturgy of the day the cross is always before our eyes; before the eyes of our body, in the crucifix held out for our veneration; before the eyes of our mind, in the proclamation of the Gospel.
On Good Friday the Passion of Saint John's Gospel is read every year; it contains a very rich theology. We are shown Jesus lifted up on the cross, with Mary and the beloved disciple beside Him. We see the soldier's spear bringing forth blood and water from His pierced side after death.
The Catholic imagination sees Mary here as a figure of the Church and as a second Eve, fashioned from the side of the sleeping Christ, a second Adam; the beloved disciple is seen as the first of many children given to this new Mother of all living. Thus the whole human race is recreated on this Friday, just as it was created in the beginning on the sixth day of the first week.
And Good Friday is but a beginning. The liturgy of the day ends quite abruptly: there is no concluding rite. The whole action strains forwards to its climax on Easter Sunday. The day of the cross seeks the day of the resurrection.
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
