Good Friday

​Good Friday 
Oblate James Holzhauer-Chuckas, ObSB
Executive Director
 
Today, I have been thinking a lot about the Seven Last Words of Jesus. They are powerful. I have included the images below that I have been praying with. 
 
Good Friday is the most solemn day of the Triduum, at least in my own journey through it. The Good Friday liturgy in our parishes is the only liturgy that isn't a Mass because there is no Eucharistic Prayer, no consecration, No Great Amen; We are fed with the consecrated hosts remaining from our Holy Thursday Mass. It is a little haunting to think that in the world there is a limited supply of Jesus on this night. Then, it hits, everything that is in the readings today. One must also ask if we truly deserve Jesus the way He gives Himself to us. In the readings, we dive into all of the really terrible things: betrayal, denial, fear, abandonment, violence, and death. It is tough to imagine how things could get better from here, but we know they do. 
 
We know in all of the acknowledgment of the suffering of Jesus and our own agonizing at His suffering that this will pass and that, like Jesus, we will be given new life very soon and an opportunity to renew ourselves in the Risen Christ. What a precious gift, especially for some of us who might be carrying our heaviest crosses through these days with Jesus. You don't have to look far to find suffering and if the readings today teach us anything, it is what we ought not to do and we will because we are human; we will deny Jesus, we will betray Jesus, we will sell Jesus out due to fear or anger, we will mock Jesus, and we will ultimately pave the way for His death...
 
but, my friends, it doesn't end there.