Good Friday 2024
Fr. Ben Riley
Last night, in my homily for Holy Thursday, I encouraged everyone to use the power of our God-given gift of imagination to put themselves in the Passion narrative. Last night, we were in the upper room with Jesus and his Apostles as they ate the last supper. In an act of service that we are called to imitate, Jesus washed the feet of his apostles. He instituted the Mass and the Eucharist. It was a beautiful and uplifting night. Putting ourselves in the story this evening is more challenging. We are no longer enjoying a meal with our friends and teacher. Tonight, we stand by and watch, not a man, but the Son of God be arrested, tortured, and executed. Tonight, the power of imagination brings us to a sorrowful place: to Calvary and the rock called Golgotha, the place of the skull.
To help with your power of imagination, I will tell you about my experience visiting these holy sites two years ago. In 2022, I had the humbling opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to Israel with six of my brother priests from Arkansas and a group of 23 other priests from around the country. We traveled to many holy sites found in the Scriptures, including The Sea of Galilee and the Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus gave the sermon on the Mount. We visited Mount Tabor, the mountain of Transfiguration, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Garden of Gethsemane, and many more holy sites. Each one had a significant impact on my spirituality and my relationship with the Lord, but by far the most powerful was visiting the church, known as the Holy Sepulcher, the Tomb of Jesus. You may not realize that the location of Jesus’ crucifixion and the new tomb that Joseph of Arimathea gave to our Lord is only a few hundred yards apart. Christians have been living in the Holy Land of Jerusalem ever since the time of Christ, so even when pagan emperors tried to destroy these holy sites by building pagan temples over them, they inadvertently marked these locations. In the early 4th Century, Saint Helen, the mother of emperor Constantine, traveled on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to identify the tomb of Jesus and the place of his crucifixion. The local Christians identified the pagan shrines as the location, so Saint Helan had the temples demolished. She found the tomb of our Lord identified by Christian graffiti; she found the rock of crucifixion known as Golgotha; and she found the true cross. A dying woman was brought to the suspected cross, because there were many crosses found, but once the woman touched the true cross, she was healed.
Saint Helen identified all three of these sites, and her son Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which still stands today. As you enter the Church, you see a flat stone about 8 feet long. This is the stone on which Jesus was laid after he was taken down from the cross; this is where he was prepared for burial. Every morning, the Armenian orthodox Priests cover this stone with sacred chrism in remembrance of the oil that was poured on the Body of Christ, the same oil that will be used for the sacraments of baptism and confirmation tomorrow.
Standing at this stone called the Stone of Unction, you look to the right and see a narrow staircase. This leads to the focal point of our Liturgy tonight. Walking up the stairs leads you to the top of the Rock called Golgotha the location where our Lord was crucified. The rock is located under a high altar, and above the altar are hundreds of burning lamps. One by one pilgrims approach the altar and place their hands in a small hole beneath it, so they can touch the place where our Lord breathed His last.
When I visited the Holy Sepulcher church, this moment of touching the rock was the most profound of the pilgrimage. There were not many people in the Church, because it was very early in the morning. I climbed the staircase, and then fear and trembling seized me. The weight of my sins and the power of Christ’s sacrifice felt very heavy, as if I had never really considered it. I knelt down, touched the rock, and broke down weeping. Publicly breaking out into tears is not in my character, but I couldn’t help it. I felt so much sorrow and so much joy all at the same time.
My brothers and sisters, this night we approach our Lord’s cross to venerate, to adore, and to give thanks for what Christ has accomplished for us. In truth, we are not worthy of his love, we are not worthy of salvation or His mercy, and yet, He chose to be tortured and crucified to save us from sin and death. Consider that for a moment. As we approach the cross this holy night, let the weight of your sins come upon you. Approach the cross with fear and trembling. And then, hand your sins over to Jesus: all your guilt, all your pain, all your anxiety and fear. Entrust it to Jesus to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.