GOOD FRIDAY - 2024

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Christ was humbler yet,
even to accepting death, death on a cross.
But God raised him high
and gave him the name which is above all names. PH 2:8-9

ISAIAH 52:13-53:12 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Only God can take an instrument of shame and torture and raise it up to a glorious throne from which all the iniquity, evil, and sins of the world are vanquished. The enemies of God believe that by murdering those who oppose evil they win have only to contemplate all that God endured in the last week of Your earthly existence to discover that good always triumphs over evil. Life always wins over death. The Cross and the Crown of Thorns, the blows, the cruel nails, the scourge, and the spear only serve to open the floodgates of torrents of love, mercy, and grace. 

Every wound, every blow, every ugly word of mockery, every curse, every blasphemy, every degrading word and deed directed toward You, O glorious Savior, served only to bring about the salvation of the whole world. Who but God, the God of contradiction, can turn the wisdom of the world on its head and reveal how divine wisdom and love can rise gloriously victorious over the worst that evil can plot, devise, and carry out in every way and in every age. Hate and evil can never win over the goodness of God, the beauty of Truth, and the astounding love of God. 

His soul’s anguish over
he shall see the light and be content.
By his sufferings shall my servant justify many,
taking their faults on himself.
Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute,
he shall divide the spoil with the mighty,
for surrendering himself to death
and letting himself be taken for a sinner,
while he was bearing the faults of many
and praying all the time for sinners.

PSALM 30(31):2,6,12-13,15-17,25 ©

In you, O Lord, I take refuge.

Let me never be put to shame.
In your justice, set me free,
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord.

In the face of all my foes

I am a reproach,
an object of scorn to my neighbours
and of fear to my friends.

Those who see me in the street

run far away from me.
I am like a dead man, forgotten in men’s hearts,
like a thing thrown away.

But as for me, I trust in you, Lord;

I say: ‘You are my God.
My life is in your hands, deliver me
from the hands of those who hate me.

Let your face shine on your servant.

Save me in your love.’
Be strong, let your heart take courage,
all who hope in the Lord.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

HEBREWS 4:14-16,5:7-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

I thank You, Lord, for the gift of the epistles to Your Church. In this letter to the Hebrews, I am reminded on this Good Friday that I, the Church, and the world have the Son of God, having gone to heaven is the supreme high priest who makes unceasing intercession for me, for the Church and the world. You are the Son of God and the Son of Man. You set Your glory aside and clothed Yourself in the flesh that You took from Your Virgin Mother, and You came into this world as one of us. You went into the deepest, darkest recesses of the human condition and tasted the worst that humanity can do to one another - drinking the cup of suffering to its very dregs. You permitted evil to crush You and You spiled Your life's blood on a wounded, hurting, depraved, sinful world. 

This is why we have every confidence in Your saving work. On the Altar of the Cross, lifted between heaven and earth, You offered Yourself to the Father as a pleasing Sacrifice for the salvation of the whole world. We live because You died. We have hope because You took our place paying a debt we owed but could not pay and redeeming us from the snares of the Enemy.

I can now approach the Throne of Grace boldly, I make my petitions not just for myself but for my loved ones, with confidence, for I am covered in the Blood of the Lamb. I am certain that I will be heard and that God will answer me favorably for Your sake.

Thank You, Jesus, for storming the gates of hell, crushing Satan, destroying death, and opening the Way that leads to the Father's House. My hope is in You. My joy is in You. I long for the day, Beloved, when I will possess You and will be possessed by You in fullness in the life to come. 

Although he was Son, he learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation.

JOHN 18:1-19:42 ©

The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ