Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Good Friday

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 04.15.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

GOOD FRIDAY: FRIDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

JOHN 18:1–19:42

Friends, today’s Gospel is John’s wonderful narrative of
Christ’s Passion.
On the cross, Jesus entered into close quarters with sin (because that’s where we sinners are found)
and allowed the heat and fury of sin to destroy him,
even as he protected us.

We can see, with special clarity,
why the first Christians associated the crucified Jesus with the suffering servant of Isaiah.
By enduring the pain of the cross, Jesus did indeed bear our sins;
by his stripes we were indeed healed.

And this is why the sacrificial death of Jesus is pleasing to the Father.
The Father sent his Son into godforsakenness, into the morass of sin and death—
not because he delighted in seeing his Son suffer,
but rather because he wanted his Son to bring the divine light to the darkest place.

It is not the agony of the Son in itself that pleases his Father,
but rather the Son’s willing obedience in offering his body in sacrifice in order to take away the sin of the world.
St. Anselm said that the death of the Son reestablished the right relationship between divinity and humanity.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there
whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
“It is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

(Here all kneel and pause for a short time.)

Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on
the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and that they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus
and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be
fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by.+++