On this Good Friday, as we meditate on the mystery of the Cross, we should remember the words of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Do not let anything disturb you, do not let anything frighten you. Everything is impermanent, God never changes. Patience attains all things. He who has God lacks nothing; God alone is enough.«
Good Friday is a solemn day in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, a day on which we remember the passion and death of Jesus Christ. It is a day of mourning, repentance and reflection on the great sacrifice Jesus made for our salvation.
On Good Friday we commemorate the suffering Jesus endured, from the brutal scourging and crowning with thorns, to the carrying of the cross, to his agonizing death on the cross. We remember the words he spoke from the cross below »Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing« (Luke 23:34) and »It is finished.« (Johannes 19,30).
Through his passion and death, Jesus shows us the depth of God’s love for us, a love that is willing to make any sacrifice to bring us back to himself. Saint John Chrysostom said: »The cross is the door to the mysteries«. By engaging in the mystery of the cross, we can encounter the heart of God himself and experience the transforming power of his love.
As we meditate on Christ’s suffering on Good Friday, we are invited to unite our own sufferings with His and to offer them in union with His sacrifice. As Saint Padre Pio once said: »Jesus Christ suffered more than any of us ever could, and he did it out of love for us. If only we could remember that when we suffer we are not alone, but that Christ suffers with us.«
It is also a day of fasting and abstinence, a day when we are called to enter a spirit of repentance and turn our hearts back to God. As Saint Augustine once said: »Fast so that you may eat the food of angels.«
Ultimately, Good Friday is a day of hope, a day to remember that death does not have the last word. Through his resurrection on Easter Sunday, Jesus shows us that the power of sin and death has been defeated and that we are redeemed through his love.
On this Good Friday, as we contemplate the mystery of the Cross, we should remember the words of Saint Teresa of Avila: »Don’t let anything worry you, don’t let anything frighten you. Everything is impermanent, God never changes. Patience attains all things. He who has God lacks nothing; God alone is enough.«