Good Friday is a day set aside for Christians across the globe to commemorate Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross of Calvary, which led to the victory of life over death. Christians observe Good Friday as the day on which the passion and death of Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind are commemorated annually.
Although Christ was crucified on Good Friday, the day is marked as ‘good’ because of the immense significance of the death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world.
This day, therefore, becomes the Christian’s anniversary of redemption.
It has immense significance for the Christians in particular and mankind in general since Christ died for all men.
As a special day to commemorate the Lord’s crucifixion, Good Friday is associated with the events of the Jewish Passover. The celebration of the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, as a constitutive part of the paschal mystery, goes back to this period.
The day is an essential part of the forty-day penitential period called Lent.
The Lenten period, for some Christians, begins with Ash Wednesday, when they are marked with the ash on the forehead, reminding man of his nothingness before God as epitomised by these words: “You are ash, and to ash you will return.”
On Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent, the Church emphasises prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The last week of Lent is known as the “Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s triumphant entry as king into Jerusalem to suffer and die after His earthly mission.
The last three days of the Holy Week, known as the Easter Triduum, are so important on account of the centrality of the events celebrated in them to man’s salvation. They are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Good Friday has a very long history, being closely associated with Easter. Thus, a common name, Paschal Mystery, joins the whole mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.
The cross is central to the theme of Good Friday, which is exceptionally venerated on this day with genuflection. On this day also, Stations of the Cross and other forms of prayers, fasting, almsgiving and abstinence from meat are meant to be observed by some Christians.
Just as the blood of the Lamb smeared on the Israelites’ doorposts brought deliverance to them, Christ becomes the paschal lamb that takes away the sins of the world and by whose death deliverance from the devil is brought.
Good Friday also recalls the manner of Christ’s death. After His crucifixion and as He hung on the cross, His pierced side brought forth water and blood.
Good Friday is thus a day to reflect on the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. While water symbolises the sacrament of baptism and blood symbolises the mystery of the Eucharist, and both constitute the very foundation of the church.
Writing to the Romans, Saint Paul acknowledged this fact when he said that those who are baptised into Christ have been baptised into his death.
Furthermore, Christians at a time like this are thus challenged to exercise selfless service for their neighbours and the society at large.
Good Friday offers Christians the opportunity to realise that there is more merit in giving than in receiving, following the footsteps of Christ, who gave all for the sake of mankind.
As Christians join Jesus Christ the Lord in his passion experience today, the necessity of self-denial in their day-to-day lives is reappraised against the backdrop of a world that craves pleasure at the expense of rectitude and conscience.
And with this question: if Jesus Christ, who is God, could suffer, why not I?
Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday celebrations end the season of Lent, which started on Ash Wednesday, with 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
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