#WatchAndPray reflections - Holy Week: Good Friday
All creation weeps
Holy Week: Good Friday
Reading
Matthew 27.45-54
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’
Reflection
The moment of Jesus’ death in Matthew’s Gospel is dramatic – not only for Jesus himself, but for the physical world. Darkness covers the whole land … the curtain of the temple is torn in two … the earth shakes and the rocks split … the tombs open and the dead are raised to life appearing to many” and it is all described as “an earthquake”.
This is a way of describing the overwhelming experience of the created order. The earth weeps. Death and the grave are beside themselves. This is a death that shakes the universe. Indigenous spiritualities and Black spiritual traditions that are still close to creation and the environment know that there is a connectedness of all things. On Good Friday, Jesus dies on the cross. All of creation groans, and all of history weeps.
Watch
Spend time in silence today contemplating Jesus' death on the cross.
...and pray
for a deeper and larger understanding of Jesus' life and death.
Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.