Good Friday is one of the most sacred days in the calendar for Christians. Sadly, it was the occasion for fueling the kind of anti-Semitism that led to the pogroms of the Middle Ages and the Holocaust during World War II.
Archie Bunker, of sitcom fame, argued to his son-in-law that Jesus was a Christian and not a Jew. A rabbi friend once told me that many Jews probably believed the same thing.
So what is Good Friday really all about? For Christians, this day is sacred because it commemorates the death of Jesus, at the hands of the Roman empire, by the ignominious vehicle of crucifixion. It took place more than 2,000 years ago at a time when Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.
Good Friday is only significant, however, because of what took place on the following Sunday. Jesus rose from the dead. Easter Sunday and Good Friday are intimately connected like different sides of the same coin.
St. Paul says that the Cross is a stumbling block to people who do not share a Christian faith, but to people who believe in Jesus Christ, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. There is so much to unpack in this powerful statement that has filled countless books for the past 20 centuries.
For Christians today, Jesus is God and reveals to the world the essence and core of who God is. God, who is pure Spirit, pure Energy, pure Love, takes on a human form in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus preaches a message of love that is threatening to the establishment of his day and for which he is put to death. In his life, his suffering and his death, he teaches us how to live, how to suffer and how to die. Never abandoned by his heavenly Father, Jesus rises to new life on Easter Sunday morning and gives to the world the fundamental pattern for dealing with the radical injustices of the world.
The life, suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus is a pattern that is meant to shape the lives of Christians. On Holy Thursday night, the night before his death, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. “What I have done for you,” he says, “you must do for each other.”
This is the metaphor that his disciples are commanded to embrace. In his life and preaching, Jesus displays abject humility and great compassion for the poor, the downtrodden and the sick.
This metaphor and pattern become the mission of the Church that will eventually bear his name.
The Christian message of love has not always been the driving force of Christian history. anti-Semitism, the crusades, the acceptance of slavery are indelible stains on times gone by and have tentacles that reach into the present. Unconditional love, turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, caring for the homeless should still be the principles that guide the Christian life today. Christianity has no room for bigotry, misogyny, racial discrimination, anti-Semitism and everything that destroys human life and degrades the common good.
In the Catholic house of the Christian faith, a significant step forward toward the inclusive message of Jesus took place when the Second Vatican Council, the highest teaching authority of the Church, formally declared an openness and appreciation for all religious traditions. In the words of the council: “We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people as other than sisters and brothers, for all are created in God’s image.” This Vatican II teaching also pays special attention to Muslims for whom we should have high regard and people of the Jewish faith with whom we share a common spiritual heritage
As Christians observe Holy Week culminating in Easter, the pattern that Jesus models for us not only speaks of life after death but provides a Rosetta stone-like tool for negotiating our way through the vagaries of this world. The Good Fridays of illnesses, injustices and evil eventually give way to Easter Sundays. This is the hope that is at the heart of the Christian life. In another place, St. Paul tells the early Church that hope will not leave us disappointed because nothing can separate us from the Love of God that comes to us through Jesus Christ.
In the end, Good Friday is all about unconditional love that rises above injustice, models forgiveness and reminds us that God is more powerful than anything in our broken world.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is the former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn and the current pastor of St. Brigid and Sacred Heart Parishes in Lexington.
