Good Friday

“Stay, don’t go,” is what my heart would want to say. But it’s the Father’s will, and today, I’m so grateful beyond understanding (I can never know all He suffered) for the sacrifice over 2000 years ago.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ took place in A.D. 30, on the Friday of the Jewish Passover week. This day is now celebrated by Christians worldwide as Good Friday. Even on the cross he reigned, and today is such a day to observe the ultimate triumph, as well as the passion, the suffering, the humiliation. This is a day of remembrance, mourning, and grief, a day to suffer with Him. I can suffer with Him as I contemplate and consider the injustice of the world, and have compasssion today. I can meditate on the hardship and heartache of the oppressed today, and pray for them.

GOOD FRIDAY
by Christina G. Rossetti

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
No so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horrow of great darkness at broad noon–
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

photo: Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dali