A Very Good Friday

Seeing why we call today “Good Friday”

03/29/2024

Jn 18:1—19:42 Jesus went out with his disciple across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them. When he said to them, “I AM, “ they turned away and fell to the ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.”

People often ask me, “Why is today called ‘Good Friday’?” After all, Jesus died an agonizing death on the cross today. So, maybe we should call it “Sad Friday” or maybe “Bad Friday”, anything but “Good Friday”! And we have to fast from food and abstain from meat today which does not feel very “good.” Someone brought me a breakfast quiche yesterday, and I had a little this morning. But first I had to pick all the bacon out of it – the best part!

And when we walked into church a few minutes ago, we were greeted with the Lord’s absence rather than his Real Presence in the tabernacle, which was empty. The tabernacle doors were gaping open like a grave. By the way, I hope you did not genuflect before you got into your pew. Why not? Well, Jesus the King is not in his castle, before whom “every knee should bow in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth” as St. Paul taught in Phil 2:10. All these factors make this Friday feel far from “good.”

And yet this Friday is good in the most profound sense possible. First of all, this Friday is good because students get out of school today, and most businesses are closed today, especially here in Fort Smith. I saw on the news that the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market are both closed. That means that instead of thinking about “bulls” and “bears” people will be contemplating “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

In other words, a spiritual silence falls over our whole society, like the silence we hear at a cemetery. Only in the silence and stillness of their graves will some people finally stop worrying about this world and pay attention to Paradise. As William Wordsworth, the great Romantic poet, lamented: “The world is too much with us.” And Good Friday pushes the world away from us a little. These are some of the natural reasons why this Friday might be called “good.”

But the real reason that today is “good” is because of Jesus. Indeed, Jesus is the only reason anything or anyone is good. And Jesus did three really good things on this Friday. First, he defeated death, our ancient enemy. We are all afraid of dying but now we no longer have to be. We can smile in the face of death, as the martyrs did, who longed to die for Jesus. That is, death is no longer a “period” at the end of the sentence of life, but merely a “comma.” Because of Good Friday, life is only momentarily interrupted by death, and a glorious new life waits for us. That makes today a very good Friday.

The second good thing Jesus did was overcome sin and Satan. The devil threw the worst trials and temptations at Jesus and Our Lord did not flinch. Just like Jesus did the first time he was tempted by Satan in the desert. And the worst of the worst temptations was feeling abandoned by God. Jesus cries out in Aramaic, his native tongue, in Mk 15:34, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

When we are hurting the most we want to speak the language we were born speaking (that is what native tongue means), like a little child crying for his mother or father. By the way, that is why no one likes bilingual Masses! Jesus did not despair, however, he trusted totally in God saying in Lk 23:46, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” In other words, childlike humility and total trust is how we will overcome sin and Satan, too. That makes today a very good Friday.

And the third good thing Jesus did today was “make all things new.” Now, we will see this newness in full flower on Sunday: new water, new fire, new candles, new flowers, and even new Catholics! But we see it already budding on Good Friday. In Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” while Jesus is bloodied, beaten and falls the third time carrying the cross, he surprisingly turns to his mother, Mary, and says: “See, Mother, I make all things new.”

Now, those words must have shocked Mary as her motherly heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. She only saw her world ending in the brutal death of her Son. Yet Jesus insisted he was making all things new. That quotation is taken from Rv. 21:5, and spoken by the glorious, resurrected Christ, who says serenely: “Behold, I make all things new.” That is, he opened the doors to that newness on Good Friday. When we join our pains and problems and perplexities to Christ’s suffering and death, we too taste a little of that newness. And that makes today a very good Friday.

So stop asking me why today is called Good Friday. Now you know.

Praised be Jesus Christ!