Holy Week Reflection: Good Friday of the Passion and Death of the Lord

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

(Is 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42)

“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”

These are the words that the priest proclaims as he begins to unveil the cross during the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and Death which the Catholic Church celebrates on Friday of Holy Week, or Good Friday. The congregation, then, responds, “Come, let us adore” and venerates the cross singing: “We adore your Cross, O Lord, we praise and glorify your holy Resurrection, for behold, because of the wood of a tree joy has come to the whole world.”

At first, the adoration of the Cross could seem strange. After all, in Jesus’ time, the cross was a form of torturing punishment and extreme humiliation. In fact, prominent atheists use the veneration of the cross to attack the principles of Christianity. For example, Any Rand states, “I do not believe in the sacrifice of one man to another. […] I am not merely anti-Christian. I am anti-mystical. The cross is a symbol of torture, of the sacrifice of the ideal to the nonideal. I prefer the dollar sign – the symbol of free trade, therefore of the free mind.” [1] This is not a new or modern development. During the 13th century, some heretical groups thought that the cross should be cursed and not blessed because it “was the instrument for the suffering and death of the one who had come to show us the way of salvation.” [2]

However, one of the mysterious ways that God works in the world is to take something that is lacking, or even evil, and raise it up to achieve good, and thereby, sanctify it and make it holy. This is not to say the God desires evil things. However, God tolerates evil and, because of God’s divine Power, God can make good out of evil. The cross is a perfect example. Before Jesus’ crucifixion, the cross was a symbol of torture and death. However, through Jesus’ selfless embracing of the cross, he transformed it into a holy instrument. The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Thus, the Church acknowledges the holiness of Christ’s Cross and, in fact, established a feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), to honor the holy Cross of Christ. A portion of the preface prayer on this feast day states, “For you placed the salvation of the human race on the wood of the Cross, so that, where death arose, life might again spring forth and the evil one, who conquered on a tree, might likewise on a tree be conquered, through Christ our Lord.” Since the original sin of humanity began with a tree, the eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God decided to use a tree as an instrument for humanity’s salvation through Jesus Christ.

So, as we reflect on the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are conscious of our sinfulness and we thank Jesus for his saving love. We ask that Jesus take us, who are lacking and sinful, and purify us; make us new, so that we may be instruments of his peace throughout the world. And so, we echo the favorite prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

“We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, in all your churches throughout the whole world, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”


– Bro. Jeffrey Wilson, T.O.R.



[1] The Saturday Evening Post (Nov. 11, 1961) quotes Ayn Rand in an interview with Mike Wallace.

[2] Raoul Manselli, St. Francis of Assisi. (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1988) p. 68.

Holy Week Reflection: Holy Thursday

Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper

(Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15)

Today is known as Holy Thursday, or Thursday of Holy Week. The Church commemorates and celebrates the Supper of the Lord, or the Last Supper, in which Jesus institutes the Eucharist and the Priesthood. In addition, in John’s Gospel, the Evangelist portrays Jesus giving an example of how to minister to others and how to be ministered to by others in his washing of the feet of the disciples. Both cases require both meekness and humility.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines meek as “enduring injury with patience and without resentment” and humble as “not proud or haughty; not arrogant or assertive.” In addition, St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor, explains, “A person is meek by loving his brothers [and sisters], humble by loving lowliness. To be meek is to be a brother [or sister] to everybody; to be humble is to be less than everybody.” [1] Both meekness and humility refer to one’s relationship with others. Humbling oneself is lowering oneself in relation to another. Meekness is loving another in a certain way.

Jesus’ washing of the feet of the disciples is an example of both meekness and humility. First, Jesus’ act of ministry requires meekness, that is, Jesus’ brotherly love for his disciples. Love is the primary motivation for all of God’s actions, and therefore, Jesus’ actions. After all, God is love (1 Jn 4:16) and for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (Jn 3:16). Because Jesus loves the disciples, he ministers to them by washing their feet and so gives them (and us, for that matter,) an example of how to minister to others.

Second, Jesus’ act of ministry requires humility. In Jesus’ time, the washing of one’s feet was the job of a slave or house servant. Jesus had to lower himself, that is, his social standing and role in society, and be free of any sense of pride or entitlement in order to perform this task. Jesus’ action echoes St. Paul’s words, “Who, 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” (Phil 6:8). This is such a lowering of Jesus’ self that, at first, Peter refuses to have Jesus wash his feet. St. Bonaventure describes Peter’s response as fearful reverence. He explains, “He came to Simon Peter, that is, to wash his feet. And Peter said to him: Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Peter was speaking as one terrified: You are doing this for me? You, as Lord, are doing this for me, a servant? You, the Master, are doing this for me, the disciple? You, the Almighty, are doing this for miserable me? [2]

Peter’s response leads to the second point: being ministered to by others also requires both meekness and humility. Jesus tells Peter, “If I do not wash you, you will have no part with me.” In order to be obedient, Peter must also be meek and humble. Through his love for Jesus, he must allow himself to me ministered to by his Lord, the Master, the Almighty. Peter must lower his desire and will in relation to God’s desire and will, that is, humble himself before the Lord. And it is Peter’s love for the Lord that allows him to do this.

So, as we enter into these holy days of the Triduum, let us stop and take time to reflect how we can be meek and humble in our ministering to our brothers and sisters and in our being ministered to by our brothers and sisters. After all, Jesus instructs us, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt 11:29).

– Bro. Jeffrey Wilson, T.O.R.


[1] St. Bonaventure, “The Evening Sermon on Saint Francis” in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Vol. 1 - The Founder. Eds. Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., J.A. Wayne Hellman, O.F.M. Conv., and William J. Short, O.F.M. (New York: New City Press, 2000), 517.

[2] St. Bonaventure, Works of St. Bonaventure, Vol. XI – Commentary on the Gospel of John. Trans. Robert J. Karris, O.F.M. (Saint Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2007), 688-9.