Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)
The Friday we call “Good” was not a bank holiday in Jerusalem. It was the time of the great religious feast, more busy than “business as usual.” People were doing what people normally do at such festive times, a time of bustle and excitement.
And through the crowded streets walked yet another condemned criminal, another sign of the Roman power over life and death. This criminal had been condemned, utterly rejected, by the religious leadership as well. Walking through the crowds, He was quite alone, really: though He had entered the city with His band of disciples, none of them were to be seen now. His Mother was there, some faithful women.
This unremarkable man was the Son of God, and the Son of Man as well, all the heart and soul of both God and man meeting in this one body, carrying all the weight of the sins of the world, bearing it all in His Body and mind. All that ever was, all that ever would be that could separate us from the love of God for us was borne by Him. Patient, gentle, always kind.
The world will go about its business this Good Friday. And we, who gather at the foot of His Cross, adore that love which wants the world to be saved – to come to Him and live. His Cross is the only stable point in the endlessly spinning, endlessly busy world, the only place of God’s control in a world out of control. The only commitment of God to man and man to God, from which all other true love in this world can grow. Come, let us adore Him.