Good Friday

"Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured,

while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins;

upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole;

by his stripes we were healed." Isaiah 53:4-5

Good Friday. Why is the day our Lord was beaten and wounded and crucified called "Good"? I can answer that question in a few of my favorite -tion words: salvation, redemption, resurrection...

When you really think about it, which I think more people, and I myself, need to do, Jesus' Passion is an incredible thing. Absolutely amazing. Jesus suffers immensely and dies a horrible death...because he loves us.

I don't know...but it actually makes me want to cry. What greater love is there than this?

And the story of the Passion begins with pain and agony, and ends in absolute triumph. Like Psalm 22. It begins with sorrow:

"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my cry for help, from my cries of anguish? My God, I call by day, but you do not answer; by night, but I have no relief."

And ends in victory:

"All the ends of the earth will worship and turn to the Lord; all the families of nations will bow low before you.

For kingship belongs to the Lord, the ruler over the nations.

All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage.

And I will live for the Lord; my descendants will serve you.

The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn

the deliverance you have brought."

And now we await his Resurrection, our hope for eternal salvation. Amen.