The Cross surely compels a silent reverence as we contemplate the Lord’s Passion and Death. We look also to the pain and sorrow of Our Lady, St. John and the women who were at the foot of the cross, witnesses of the Lord’s agony and we place ourselves with them on Calvary.
The Cross also reminds us that as disciples we are called to take up our cross each day and follow the Lord. It reminds us that we must learn the meaning of sacrifice, that we must understand the gravity of sin and our need to repent. These are serious and somber aspects of this day.
Yet the fact that we call it, “Good Friday,” suggests that there is something more to understand. However sorrowful and solemn it is to stand on Calvary and to gaze upon the crucified Lord, the cross is also a sign of triumph and infinite love. It is a sign of God’s faithfulness and our deliverance. This is why we can call this day “Good.” At the cross, the vertical, upward pillar of man’s pride and sin is transected by the horizontal and outstretched arms of God’s love. With strong hand, and outstretched arms the Lord has won the victory for us.
It is right to weep at the cross, to behold the awful reality of sin, to recall Christ’s sacrifice. But the disciple can and should also rejoice for as a text in today’s liturgy reminds us “because of the wood of a tree, joy has come to the whole world.”
Cardinal Angelo Comastri’s prayer to the Lord Crucified expresses this well:
O Lord, your Cross reveals to us mystery of our sin. You, Innocent One, entered a history we spoiled by our pride that became defiant, hateful and violent.
You suffered the passion of human history so that you might show us that when our human freedom is separated from God, we experience bitterness in our search for peace, light, and love. But your Cross, O Lord Jesus, reveals above all the mystery of your Love that is stronger than our sins, more tenacious then our rebellions, more powerful than our hollow abilities. O Jesus Crucified, You are our Hope through all the twisted paths we take through time. O Jesus Crucified, You are the Assurance that God loves us always.
