“And Jesus having cried out with a loud voice, gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. And the centurion who stood over against him, seeing that crying out in this manner he had given up the ghost, said: Indeed this man was the son of God.” —Mark 15:37-39
“As they were looking on, so we too gaze on his wounds as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul.” —St. Augustine
Today is Good Friday 2024, the day on which we remember Christ’s Passion and death by Crucifixion nearly two millennia ago. Without the sacrificial death of the God-man Jesus, the gates of Heaven would have remained closed, and mankind would still be enslaved to sin, without salvation.
Crucifixion was a particularly brutal kind of death, reserved by the Romans for despised criminals, humiliating and painful in the extreme. You can read a fascinating medical analysis of just what Jesus suffered. But on top of that He bore the burden of all our sins; He felt every tragedy, every loss, every injury, every crime, every death. No mere human could have done it, only a man who was also God. St. Catherine of Siena, fired by the thought of this sacrifice of Christ for us, wrote, “Embrace Jesus crucified, loving and beloved, and in him you will find true life because He is God made man. Let your heart and your soul burn with the fire of love drawn from Jesus on the Cross!”
Indeed, mystery though it is, the crucifix is truly the ultimate symbol of love. “But we,” wrote St. Paul (1 Cor. 1:23-25), “preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
It is a paradox to all those who are not Christian (and now even to some who profess to be Christian) that the crucifix should be a symbol of love and victory, but so it is. And we must learn from the crucifixion to take up our crosses and follow Christ, to imitate His patience in suffering. “The cross is the school of love,” said St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died in a Nazi concentration camp so another prisoner could live. And St. Paul of the Cross enthused, “The Passion of Christ is the greatest and most stupendous work of Divine Love.”
Jesus suffered more on that first Good Friday than anyone of us ever can, and we are all guilty of His blood. Many Christians like to blame certain groups or individuals for the crucifixion, particularly the Jews (as if one small group of Jews calling for Christ’s death, to the grief of another group of Jews who followed the Jew Jesus, were enough to damn all Jews for all time). “For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God” (Roman’s 3:23). St. John of the Cross advised, “Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”
Below are sections of St. John’s account of the Crucifixion, the only Gospel account written by an eyewitness (Jn. 19:18-20, 25-30):
“[T]hey crucified [Jesus], and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title therefore many of the Jews did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin…Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.
When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to his mouth. Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.”
The cross is at the center of our faith. Jesus told us (Matt. 16:24), “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Jesus’s Resurrection and triumph over sin and death came only through and after the Passion and death on the cross. We too must suffer and sacrifice before we reach our spiritual victory and bodily resurrection.
Below are a few more inspiring quotes from the saints about Jesus’s death and the cross:
‘How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.’ —St. Theodore the Studite
‘No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. His prayer brought benefit to the multitude that raged against him. How much more does it bring to those who turn to him in repentance.’ —St. Leo the Great
‘Mount Calvary is the mount of lovers. All love that does not take its origin from the Savior’s passion is foolish and perilous. Unhappy is love without the Savior’s death. Love and death are so mingled in the Savior’s passion that we cannot have one in our hearts without the other. Upon Calvary, we cannot have life without love, or love without the Redeemer’s death.’ —St. Francis de Sales
‘He died, but he vanquished death; in himself he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself and he vanquished it, as a mighty hunter he captured and slew the lion.’ ‘God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.’ —St. Augustine
‘If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross.’ —St. Thomas Aquinas
‘The crosses with which our path through life is strewn associate us with Jesus in the mystery of His crucifixion.’ —St. John Eudes
‘By nothing else except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has death been brought low: The sin of our first parent destroyed, hell plundered, resurrection bestowed, the power given us to despise the things of this world, even death itself, the road back to the former blessedness made smooth, the gates of paradise opened, our nature seated at the right hand of God and we made children and heirs of God. By the cross all these things have been set aright…It is a seal that the destroyer may not strike us, a raising up of those who lie fallen, a support for those who stand, a staff for the infirm, a crook for the shepherded, a guide for the wandering,a perfecting of the advanced, salvation for soul and body, a deflector of all evils, a cause of all goods, a destruction of sin, a plant of resurrection, and a tree of eternal life.’ —St. John Damascene
Have a blessed Good Friday.
This is so beautiful. Thank you, Catherine. I hope you and all your family have a very blessed Easter.