Good Friday
FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK – JESUS DIES ON A CROSS
During the hours he hung in agony he uttered seven sentences at intervals:
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
I thirst! John 19:28
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:43
He is your son.
She is your mother.
It is finished. John 19:30
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Luke 23:46
Over the centuries devout believers who have prayed at the foot of the cross on Good Fridays have imagined Jesus speaking reproaches such as these to humankind:
My people, I made you in my likeness,
yet you have marred my image, degraded body and soul.
I made my children of one blood to live in families rejoicing in one another,
but you have embittered the races and divided the peoples.
My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you? Answer me.
Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.
I freed you from slavery,yet you handed me over to death and jeered at me.
I opened the sea before you, yet you opened my side with a spear!
I fed you in the desert, guided you with cloud by day and night,
yet you led me to Pilate!
I struck down rulers who would have harmed you, yet you struck me with a reed.
My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you?
Answer me.
Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.
I gave you from the rock living waters of salvation:
you gave me bitter drink and quenched my thirst with vinegar!
I put the sceptre into your hand and made you a royal people:
you crowned me with the crown of thorns!
I made you great by my boundless power:
you hanged me on the gallows of the cross!
My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done for you?
Answer me.
Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.
I have come to you in this your land, yet you have betrayed my sacrifice and spurned my love.
I am your Creator, I have entrusted the land to you,
yet you have violated its laws and misused my creatures.
I entrusted the world to you, yet you have polluted its air and created the means to destroy it.
My people, what wrong have I done to you? What good have I not done to you?
Answer me.
Lord, have mercy on us, cleanse us from our sins. Lord, have mercy on us, turn our hearts again.
Intercessions
O King of the Friday, whose limbs were stretched on the cross,
O Lord who did suffer the bruises, the wounds, the loss.
We stretch ourselves beneath the shield of your might;
some fruit from the tree of your passion fall on us this night!
...
The sun hid its light. The earth quaked and gave up its dead. All creation wept.
