In a solemn Good Friday Liturgy April 3, Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy venerated the cross, commemorated the crucifixion of Jesus and said Christ made the “ultimate sacrifice” to reconcile man and God.
“The beauty of this day points to joy and to hope and to the conviction that God always stands with us,” Cardial McElroy said. “On the cross, God has made the ultimate sacrifice that we might know that our sins are forgiven, we are redeemed, and we are called to walk with God.”
Marking the most solemn day in the liturgical year, Cardinal McElroy was the celebrant and homilist of the Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. Several hundred people attended the liturgy which was also livestreamed over various Internet platforms.
Lamenting the “torments and suffering that abounds” in the world today, Cardinal McElroy noted that “human sinfulness entered the world not by God’s desire, but by human failure.”
The cardinal called the Passion of Jesus Christ “the great drama of the salvation of humanity,” that gives the faithful hope because “Christ hangs on the cross for us – for all of us and for each of us personally and individually.”
Cardinal McElroy said that “the cross of Jesus Christ has three gifts” to it: expiation of sins, the outpouring of God’s mercy, and comfort in knowing that God accompanies us in our suffering.
“Christ sacrifices himself – he who never knew sin, who never was guilty of any wrong,” the cardinal said. “Christ’s redemptive act makes up for every failure humanity has ever incurred.”
He said that as Jesus looked down from the cross at those who tortured him, “there is not anger, there is not a sense to lash out … Jesus accepts this in an act of incredible mercy.”
Cardinal McElroy called it a “sickness of the soul” to believe that one is not worthy of God’s mercy. “Never doubt that the Lord embraces you with joy, love and happiness,” he said.
Because of the cross of Jesus, he added, “we know that in our own lives when we suffer physically, spiritually or emotionally … we turn in prayer to a God in not of remoteness of abstraction, but a God who knows suffering personally.”
During the liturgy, the Passion of Jesus Christ as recounted in the Gospel of John was proclaimed.
Because Good Friday commemorates Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross, it is marked by penance, prayer and public veneration of the cross by the faithful. It is a day of total abstinence from meat and also a day of fasting.
Masses are not celebrated in Catholic churches on Good Friday, and the liturgy did not include consecration of the Holy Eucharist. Communion was distributed from hosts consecrated the night before at the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
As part of the liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew, solemn intercessions were prayed, including petitions for the Church, the pope, priests and ministers, catechumens, for the unity of the Christian faith, for those of the Jewish faith, for those of no faith, for those in public office and other intentions.
Prior to the veneration of the cross, Cardinal McElroy held aloft a crucifix and processed through the cathedral. Three times he intoned, “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which has hung the salvation of the world.”
The tradition of venerating the cross dates back to the late 4th century when St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem a fragment of wood believed to be from Christ’s cross. The faithful came forward to reverence the fragment in a sign of respect, and the tradition continues to this day. At the cathedral, the faithful reverenced the cross with a kiss or by bowing or genuflecting.
The Good Friday liturgy was preceded at noon by a reflection on the Seven Last Words of Christ led by L.J. Milone, the cathedral’s director of faith formation, and members of St. Matthew's Schola Cantorum.
Before departing the cathedral, the cardinal prayed to God that for those “who have honored the death of your Son” by participating in the liturgy, “may pardon come, comfort be given, holy faith increase, and everlasting redemption be made secure.”
Keeping with the somber tone of the day, the liturgy ended solemnly with Cardinal McElroy and other participants departing from the altar in reverential silence.
The remainder of Cardinal McElroy’s Easter schedule is as follows:
On Holy Saturday, April 4, Cardinal McElroy will celebrate a livestreamed Easter Vigil Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral at 8 p.m. (https://youtube.com/live/2L1pzPdzf88?feature=share)
Then on Easter Sunday, April 5, the cardinal will celebrate a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that will be televised on the Eternal Word Television Network and livestreamed at
https://www.youtube.com/live/lo5RJPH4rlA?si=1KgBXHvnwijk_nHu
