GOOD FRIDAY -- April 3, 2026

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Theme: The Cross is not defeat — it is love revealed

Readings:

• 1^st Reading: Isaiah 52:13—53:12 (The fourth “suffering servant” song): The servant is meek, peaceful.
• Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 31:2,6,12-13,15-16,17,25 (“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”)
• Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 (Jesus, the High Priest, learned obedience)
• Gospel: The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (Jn 18:1—19:42)

Christ’s wounds are our healing. His surrender is our salvation.

Brothers and sisters,

.... on Good Friday we stand together at the foot of the cross. Today’s readings — Isaiah’s vision of the suffering servant, the psalmist’s cry of trust, the profound words of the letter to the Hebrews, and John’s account of the Passion of Christ — draw us into the very heart of salvation’s mystery. We learn about the cost of love, the weight of sacrifice, and the boundless mercy revealed in Christ crucified.

Isaiah speaks of one who was despised and rejected, pierced for our sins, yet by his wounds we are healed. In Christ, this prophecy is fulfilled. He embraces suffering not as defeat but as the path to redemption. His humiliation becomes our hope, his silence our peace.

The psalmist prays, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” Jesus takes these words upon his lips as he breathes his last. This is not naïve trust — it is the deepest act of faith. Even in abandonment, even in death, Christ surrenders to the Father, teaching us that true strength lies in letting go into God’s hands.

Hebrews presents Jesus as the great high priest who sympathizes with our weakness. He knows our pain, our struggles, our fears. His obedience, even to death, becomes the source of eternal salvation. In him, we find not a distant God but one who walks with us, suffers with us, redeems us.

And then John’s Gospel: Jesus, sovereign even in suffering, freely embraces the cross. He does not resist, but declares, “It is finished.” This is not resignation — it is triumph. The cross, once an instrument of torture, becomes the throne of love. Here, God’s glory is revealed not in power but in self-giving.

So what does this mean for us today? It means the cross is not simply a past event — it is a present call. We are invited to see God’s power in weakness, to recognize love in sacrifice, to trust in God even when all seems lost. Good Friday is not the end of the story, but the moment when love is revealed in its fullest depth.

As we venerate the cross, let us remember: Christ’s wounds are our healing. His death is our life. His surrender is our salvation. And in that surrender, we too are invited to place our lives into the hands of the Father — trusting that beyond the darkness of Good Friday lies the radiant light of Easter morning.

AMEN!