Good Friday - How Good?

I remember a conversation with my grandmother, when I was likely 9 or 10 years old. She was talking with me about the approaching Easter celebration at church. She had always wanted me involved in church as an acolyte, but I balked. However, when the new assistant priest held auditions for a children's choir, I finally gave in. We had been rehearsing for weeks before The Great Vigil, at which we were to sing a Gregorian Chant Mass and Panis Angelicus as the anthem. I was staying with my grandmother; she lived next to the church. It was Good Friday; there was no rehearsal, in keeping with what she said was the solemnity of the day. That night, she asked me a question: "What do you suppose it means that God's Son was crucified?" I very quickly responded that it showed how evil the world could be, that people would kill Jesus. She looked at me with a lot of love in her eyes and then said, "No, the cross is not about the evil of the world but about the goodness of God. God loves the world so much that he is willing to die for the people. God will do whatever it takes to help people love."

Today, The Passion of Jesus Christ is read from the Gospel according to John 18:1-19:42

Take the time to read it, if you cannot attend a liturgy where you can hear it.

Read or listen, asking yourself:
What is so Good about Good Friday; What does it mean that Jesus dies on the cross?