Good Friday: The Passion of Our Lord ~ by Phyllis Booth

Good Friday's Service was solemn and inspiring. The Isaiah Reading foretold the suffering of the Servant that God would send into the world to help mankind by redeeming him. Listening to the words of the lector, you realized that mankind has not come close to redeeming himself. Each country or principality has heard the Word and interpreted it according to their own belief or power it wants to achieve. Therefore the present world continues to persecute, enslave, ostracize and condemn our brothers and sisters who believe in the Word and want to live justly.

The Hebrew Reading reminds us that God kept His promise to send a Servant to redeem the world. He sent His only Son to live as a human among mankind. The Son experienced the same life as we experience it, working, loving others, making friends, accepting a religious life and practicing it. Through the life the Son lived, He left a Pattern of how to live peacefully, mercifully and compassionately for others to embrace. Two thousand years later, the kings, leaders, present day prophets and politicians have not accepted that Pattern as the norm to receive God's grace and mercy.

The homily on Jesus' Passion truly caused one to think of how much God loves and cares for us. He shields us from the fate of His own Son. We come into the world as innocent children of loving parents. We choose the path we want to follow in life. Jesus came into the world with a definite purpose. Our purpose in life is hidden from us at birth. If we follow God's Will for us, we will find the purpose we are to serve. Jesus accepted the purpose he was to carry out.

Because He was God, Jesus knew His fate before leaving Heaven. He knew who His Mother would be, the day or date He would be born. He knew what skills He would have, the work He would perform and the date of His death. But as a man, He had to discover God's Will for himself just as we do.

My thoughts went to God's first human, Adam. God created him out of love and I wondered what life would be like if Adam was as perfect as Jesus. Would the Garden of Eden exist? Would there be wars? How long would life be?

There are no answers to these questions. I'm thankful that God had a plan for the mystery that took place in the Garden of Eden and that Jesus gracefully accepted His Father's Will to redeem the world. Even after two thousand years, God still calls us to live a Holy and Merciful life to receive the Salvation He Promised Through His Son.