Good Friday: Golgotha (Chapters 7-10) (Friday in Holy Week)

PAUSE
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

(pause)
I pray Psalm 31: 2 and 5, speaking slowly, several times:
“Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me…Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.”

REFLECT
Bible: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Ps. 22: 1-2)

Comment: This psalm, quoted by Jesus on the cross, articulates for all of us the despair of God’s silence and the terror of feeling abandoned in our hour of gravest need. It reassures us that we are not alone in our suffering, that it’s okay to be honest in our questioning, and that Jesus understands our pain. But there’s something else here: when Jesus quoted this psalm, He knew that it opens with a cry of despair but concludes with a cry of victory: “All the ends of the earth will remember and tum to the Lord … They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” (vv.27, 31); The similarity between these last four words, “He has done it!: and Christ’s last three words, “It is finished,” are striking. Perhaps even here, in the agony of the cross, Jesus knew that something new was being born.

ASK
Ask myself: Christ’s cry, “It is finished,” is both desperate and triumphant. It tells me that suffering will come to an end, that my prayers will not always remain unanswered, that Holy Saturday will eventually, inevitable give way to Easter Day. Where are the hidden hints of such a hope, the promises of God’s purpose, within the darkness of my current situation?

Ask the Lord: I take time now to thank the Father that through Jesus’ abandonment on the cross, I need never be abandoned, and that through His death, I can have eternal life.

YIELD
The Agnus Dei (John 1:29):

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Amen