Good Friday of the Lord's Passion 2019

The Gospel reading for today, Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion, is John 18:1-19:42. This is, fittingly, the scripture that tells us of Jesus’ passion and death. It begins in the Kidron valley where there was a garden, where Jesus is arrested. And it ends in a garden where there was a new tomb where Jesus was laid.

A garden, the Garden of Eden, is where God created man out of the earth. So it is fitting that in a tomb in a garden, the Son of Man is buried. This is where the scripture ends today.

During the reading of the Passion of our Lord, shortly before Jesus is laid in the tomb, he is on the cross and says, “It is finished.” After these words, all of us kneel and pause for a short time.

Today we fast during our meals, we abstain from meat, we have no Mass today, our Savior is buried. Today we get on our knees and pray. Today we pause to honor the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus and prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily the resurrection of Christ.