Good Friday

I remember when I was young Good Friday was a day many more people marked. Stores closed from 12-3 p.m. My parents did not take us to church, but playing and talk were kept at a minimum at our house. Prayer was the order of the day. Mom always remarked how the sky would get cloudier around three o'clock.

And each of our rooms had a crucifix hanging on the wall. It served as a daily reminder of the sacrifice Jesus endured for our sins.

Today is a solemn day, when many Christians come to church to commemorate Christ's Passion. It is a day that fills churches, even though the message is not bright and cheery.

Today we gather as sinners and remember the suffering of Christ. In looking at the Stations of the Cross on the walls, do we fully realize the brutality that Jesus experienced? Do the words we have just read constitute just another reading of the Passion? Can we appreciate the physicality of Jesus' suffering: the scourging, the crown of thorns, and the three falls of Christ?

How do we address these hours? Is it with heavy hearts? Spiritually, that makes sense. Or are we just looking ahead to Easter? But is there more to Good Friday than just the quiet grief and observation of Jesus' death? Perhaps it is more than just staying home and self-sacrifice. Perhaps it is more than just the quiet three o'clock hour.

Our modern world sees no value in suffering. It does everything it can to avoid, deny or anesthetize suffering regardless of the moral consequences. When the movie "The Passion" was released years ago, many condemned it as being too morbid. Many of the movie's critics were far more understanding of other more violent, fictional action movies.

It shocked people by the reality of the horrors of the scourging and crucifixion. It was a powerful message of what Jesus endured for us.

In Pope Francis' first homily as Pope, he told us "I would like that all of us . . . might have the courage - the courage - to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord: to build the Church on the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to profess the one glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go forward."

We will go forward too.