Good Friday - 2026; A Ransom paid by Death on Calvary

Good Friday - 2026; A ransom paid by Death

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?  Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish?  My God, I call by day, but you do not answer; by night but I have no relief.  Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the glory of Israel.  All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me; “You relied on the Lord - let him deliver you; if he loves you, let him rescue you.”

Then I will proclaim your name to the assembly; in the community I will praise you; “You who fear the Lord, give praise!   All descendants of Jacob, give honor; show reverence, all descendants of Israel!  For God has not spurned or disdained  the misery of this poor wretch, did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.  (Ps 22: 1 - 4, 8 - 9, 23 - 25).

Psalm 22 is not a cry of despair but is a plea to his Father to remember the poor who await their release from the agony of evil men.  That is what the Crucifixion represents while it is our ransom for sin.  

Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence.  But because of the union his body retained with the person of the Son, his was not a mortal corpse  like others, for “divine power preserved Christ’s body from corruption.”  Both of these statements can be said of Christ: “He was cut off out of the land of the living,” and “My flesh will dwell in hope.  For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption.”  Jesus’ Resurrection “on the third day” was the proof of this, for bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death.  (CCC 627).

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness.  A great silence because the King is asleep.  The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began…He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep.  Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve…”I am your God, who for your sake have become your son…I order you, O sleeper, to awake.  I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell.  Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.  ( An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday, following CCC 635), 

Ralph B. Hathaway