Good Friday
Good Friday
Jesus asked St. Faustina to begin a Novena to the Divine Mercy on Good Friday and concluding on the 1st Sunday after Easter. She writes: Jesus is commanding me to make a novena before the Feast of Mercy, and today I am to begin it for the conversion of the whole world and for the recognition of The Divine Mercy…. so that every soul will praise His goodness.
Today we will meditate on Good Friday and conclude with the first day of the Divine Mercy Novena.
Let us begin in the name of the Father…
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How do we understand what Jesus did for us by His crucifixion and death? The CCC (614-615) explains that all sin is a turning away from God, a turning away from His will in disobedience and turning away from His love by our refusing to love. Jesus opens up the floodgates of Divine Mercy and saves us when he substituted his love and obedience for our refusal to love and do and accept the will of God. By his life and death Jesus became a total offering of love and obedience to God in reparation for our sin.
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We share in the total offering of love and obedience of Jesus, by being made one with Him, first in Baptsim and then in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Eucharist.
There is a profound moment in the Mass when the priest invites us to “Lift up your hearts” and we respond “We lift them up to the Lord.” At Mass we give ourselves totally to the Father through Jesus to love him and to do his will. But, then we must go on to make our lives into a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. It begins with prayer. If we develop a life of daily meditation then we will open up our soul to receive the grace, the life of Jesus to do what we cannot do on our own – to love and obey God. If we wont commit to daily meditation then we will not have the power and we will backslide into sin and mediocrity. The power of the Rosary is to be meditation on all that God has revealed with the added power of the Holy Spirit and Mary bringing Jesus to your soul and teaching you to be like Him. Baptism, the Eucharist and prayer enable Jesus to live his total offering in and through us.
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By his life and death Jesus became a total offering of love and obedience to God. In Romans 12:1 Paul writes: I appeal to you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your life as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Our ordinary everyday life can become true spiritual worship, a total offering in love and obedience. How? Strive to do the will of God in all things. Fulfill the responsibilities of your state in life because it is the will of God and because you love Him. Then accept everything that you did not choose, do not like and cannot change in love and obedience to God’s permissive will. Most of all, offer to God your works of JOY, all your efforts to live out authentic friendship, hospitality, genuine interest and delight in others and good conversation. The gift of friendship is that which is most pleasing to God because that is the main way to draw others to Him.
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Death and especially Martyrdom is a total offering of love and obedience to God. Our lives are meant to be the story of one who loves God, the greatest good, over all lesser goods; a life in which we are willingly stripped, detached of everything that does not lead us to God. If this becomes the story of our lives, then death is just the last and greatest act in the drama. Death is our final act of entering into the love and obedience of Christ. Martyrdom is the supreme expression of being united to Him, it is our chance to be drawn fully into the love and obedience of Christ, into the liturgy of the Cross, and therefore into true worship.
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Jesus instructed St. Faustina to begin a Novena to His Mercy on Good Friday. He said to her:
I desire that during these nine days you bring souls to the fountain of My mercy, that they may draw therefrom strength and refreshment and whatever grace they need in the hardships of life, and especially at the hour of death.
On each day you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls, and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy, and I will bring all these souls into the house of My Father. You will do this in this life and in the next. I will deny nothing to any soul whom you will bring to the fount of My mercy. On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My bitter Passion, for graces for these souls.
Faustina answered, “Jesus, I do not know how to make this novena or which souls to bring first into Your Most Compassionate heart.”
Jesus replied that He would tell me which souls to bring each day into His Heart.
First Day - Today, bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me.
Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which (58) we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from it. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Oh omnipotence of Divine Mercy, Salvation of sinful people, You are a sea of mercy and compassion; You aid those who entreat You with humility.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy forever and ever. Amen.