On that Friday that we call good

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

The crucifixion was the most painful and most humiliating punishment a man could suffer in Jesus’s time and even to our time.  The word “excruciating” which means extremely painful comes from the word crucifixion.  “Ex” in Latin means “from” and “cruciating” comes from the word “crucifixion”.  So, excruciating literally means “from crucifixion.”  Death by crucifixion is both by asphyxiation and exsanguination or by loss of breath and loss of blood.  As the crucified person labors to breathe, moving his upper body in an up and down movement, it also produces an excruciating pain.  The humiliating part of the crucifixion is being crucified naked and be displayed and seen by as many people as possible.  Golgotha where our Lord Jesus was crucified was located just outside the walls of Jerusalem and He was crucified on a day when Jerusalem was packed with people because of the Passover celebration.  The Roman authorities wanted the crucifixion be done in a very public way as a warning to the Jews not to disobey or rebel against them.

The crucifixion was just one among the many great sufferings of Christ not to mention His scourging at the pillar, His crowning with thorns and the abandonment of His disciples.  Why does Jesus Christ have to suffer so much?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church would tell us:  to show us God’s great love for us and to teach us the malice and evilness of sin.  Bishop Robert Barron would say, “The wounds of Christ reveal to us our sins although in our shame we tend to hide them.”  This should help us make a resolution to confront our sins and not to hide them, be sorry for them through the sacrament of confession, as well as trying our best not to sin again especially mortal sins.

God makes use of evil and sacrifice to bring about a great good.  The reason why a loving God allows evil to happen to us and to the entire world is to bring about a great good in us and to the whole world.  If God could pull off a good out of sacrificing His Son, He will likewise pull off “Good Fridays” in our lives for our own good, especially spiritual good such as acquiring the virtues of patience, courage, fortitude and spirit of penance.  Good Friday is supposed to be the worst and most evil day in the history of humanity because it is the day man has literally murdered God.  But God turned it into the greatest good because it is the payment for all sins of men from Adam until the last baby born before the end of the world.  The sacrifice of Christ is necessary otherwise there will be no mercy and forgiveness for humanity because justice (man dishonoring God through sin) has to be settled.

The message of Good Friday is that there is a meaning to our pain.  That it is not just a senseless and purposeless suffering.  God directly and indirectly allows our suffering because there is a good that can be derived from it. Sometimes, we could ascertain it but often times not.  That’s why faith is important because it’s like trusting a surgeon operating on us, who inflicts us pain, but knowing that the pain he causes leads to our healing and health.