Good Friday

For Good Friday, Year A, Father Hanly offers us a very short but perfect commentary.

Readings for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion, Year A

• First Reading: Isaiah 52:13–53:12
• Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
• Second Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
• Gospel: John 18:1–19:42

Recording

Transcript

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

Today, after hearing the gospel according to John, I thought that I would read a commentary written by Jesus’ disciple, St Paul. He wrote this to the people of Philippi. They were just young Christians, but, in his short reading, he gave the sum and substance of why Jesus came, what he did and how grateful we are to praise him.

A reading from the epistle of St Paul to the people of Philippi:

My dear brothers and sisters,
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness,
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross,
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

The Word of the Lord.

And this is the reason why this terrible Friday, that saw the destruction of God’s only Son, becomes for all of us, down through the ages, a Friday that we know as good.

For the good God has sent His good Son to us and redeemed us all that we, living here today and always, can live with great hope. For he walks with us, and we walk with him into everlasting life.