Good Friday 2010

As early as the first century, the Church set aside every Friday as a special day of prayer and fasting. It was not until the fourth century, however, that the Church began observing the Friday before Easter as the day associated with the crucifixion of Christ. First called Holy or Great Friday by the Greek Church, the name "Good Friday" was adopted by the Roman Church around the sixth or seventh century. With every Good Friday and also every Friday during Lent we walk alongside Christ and venerate his Passion, Death and Resurrection.

We First begin with the Betrayal of Judas, which is said to have taken place in Gethsemane at some time around Mid-Night. Later Jesus is taken before the High Priests and is interrogated and later judged and sent before Pilate in the early morning hours. Pilate then sent Jesus to King Herod, the son of Herod the Great, to which to his belief, Jesus was a crazy person who just needed to be taught a lesson or ignored. Christ then returns to Pilate and is interrogated by him. Pilate then wishes to set Christ free, but to this the Jewish people began to riot and complain about setting one prisoner free for the Passover holiday. Pilate then let Barabbas free had Jesus imprisoned and flogged and then turned him over to the Jewish authorities with the words, "I am not responsible for the blood of this man, you are responsible for it, I wash my hands of this affair." It was around 9 in the morning when Christ and the two prisoners began their way to the Mount of Calvary. Christ in all his pain and suffering fell for the very first time, the soldiers then stood him up without mercy and made him continue. Later on Christ saw his mother, the Virgin Mary. Christ had a mini-fall before the blessed Mother, to which the soldiers picked Simon of Cyrene to help him out on the way to his crucifixion. A few meters later, a woman named Veronica went to clean the face of Christ and thus he gave her a gift for her compassion and love towards him. Leaving his holy face upon the simple piece of cloth. When he fell for the second time with Simon the soldiers were now even more brutal towards Christ. They stood him up and made him proceed, to where he saw a group of women crying and lamenting for him, to which he said, "Don't cry for me Daughters of Jerusalem, but rather yet cry for yourselves and your children for their will be a day where you will wish to have been sterile." Christ, then fell for the third time on his way, to which they had finally arrived at Calvary. Christ was to be crucified naked but they decided to leave him with his loin cloth. Christ was crucified at around noon and the cross exalted soon after he was crucified. He was there for 3 hours as we read in the Gospel of Luke, "It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"; and when he had said this he breathed his last. " Also at the foot of the Cross, he then gave Mary his Blessed Mother to his Beloved Disciple John. After his death he was then taken down from the cross due to the intercession of Joseph of Arimathea, who also donated an empty burial cave so that Christ could be laid to rest. And thus ends Good Friday with the Burial of Christ and our await of his Glorious Resurrection.