GOOD FRIDAY
Day of fast (ages 18-59) and abstinence from meat (age 14 and up)
Psalter: Proper / (Red)
Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Father, into your hands
I commend my spirit.
1st Reading: Is 52:13–53:12*
It is now when my servant will succeed; he will be exalted and highly praised. (…) Yet ours were the sorrows he bore, ours were the sufferings he endured, although we considered him as one punished by God, stricken and brought low. Destroyed because of our sins, he was crushed for our wickedness. (…)
My just servant will justify the multitude; he will bear and take away their guilt. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong. For he surrendered himself to death and was even counted among the wicked, bearing the sins of the multitude and interceding for sinners.
2nd Reading: Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Gospel: Jn 18:1—19:42*
(…) Bearing his cross, Jesus went out of the city to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There he was crucified, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. (…) The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’; but, ‘This man claimed to be King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered them, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each of them. But as the tunic was woven in one piece from top to bottom, they said, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots to decide who will get it.” This fulfilled the words of Scripture: They divided my clothing among them; they cast lots for my garment. This was what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister Mary, who was the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of whom he loved, he said to the mother, “Woman, this is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “This is your mother.” And from that moment the disciple took her to his own home.
Jesus knew all was now finished and, in order to fulfill what was written in Scripture, he said, “I am thirsty.“ A jar full of bitter wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a twig of hyssop, they raised it to his lips. Jesus took the wine and said, “It is accomplished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up the spirit. (…)
Reflections
IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!
When we speak of accomplishment, we think of some grand project which we have conceived, begun, struggled for, and finally completed. When Jesus said: IT IS ACCOMPLISHED, there seems to be nothing that he had finished — just the end of suffering and torture. He had 12 followers, one betrayed him, one denied him, and everyone ran away except one. Is that accomplishment? Is that achievement? YES, IT IS. In the ordinary, day-to-day life of Christ, where there were no spectacular happenings and which had this tragic end, he redeemed the whole world and brought about our salvation. In one Scripture passage Christ asks: What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and suffer the loss of your own soul? In the life and death of Christ, he won for each and everyone of us the possibility of gaining our own souls, of vanquishing our spiritual enemies, of making our lives worthwhile and, at the time of our death, we can cry out: DEATH WHERE IS THY STING, WHERE IS THY VICTORY?
Daily Reflection 2018
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Biblical Texts are taken from Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition (57th Edition) The New English Translation for the ROMAN MISSAL
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