GOOD Friday is a day not to mourn but to celebrate Jesus Christ’s love behind the sacrifice He made for humanity, UST Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P. said during the commemoration of the Lord’s passion on Friday, April 7, at the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church.
Ang said in his homily that Jesus’s death on the cross completed mankind’s salvation history.
“It is a good day because, on this day, our Savior did something without which we could never get redeemed, without which we can never get [into] heaven,” he said.
“Therefore, masasabi natin, we glory in the cross of Christ. We should not glory in our personal achievements. We should not glory in our talents. We should not glory in whatever power or influence that we have,” he added.
Ang said Christ exemplified the true meaning of love – the willingness to go the extra mile to sacrifice and suffer.
“Kung may pagmamahal ka, nakakapagtiis ka na. Kung may pagmamahal ka, makakaunawa ka. Kung may pagmamahal ka, makakapagbibigay ka,” Ang said.
Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula likened this to parenting, where mothers and fathers set aside their wants to take care of their children.
“Parents may sacrifice their personal time and interests to attend their children’s activities or appointments […] This example may seem small but […] shows a willingness to prioritize the needs and well-being of loved ones above one’s own desires and interests,” Advincula said in his homily at the Manila Cathedral.
The prelate called on Catholics to respond to Jesus’s sacrifice with gratitude and humility.
“We must recognize that we are unworthy of such a great gift and yet, God still chose to give it to us,” he said.
After the commemoration, devotees joined the procession of Santo Entierro, or the Holy Burial of the image of the dead Christ, a tradition practiced in the Philippines since the Spanish colonial period.
Good Friday marks the only day in the liturgical calendar without a Eucharistic celebration because “the figure (or the Mass) ceases on the advent of the reality,” according to St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Summa Theologica.” Allyssa Mae C. Cruz and Ammiel B. Maestrado with reports from Diana May B. Cabalo
