Good Friday - all is lost...

Here it is. Friday of Holy Week. For the disciples it is a time of ultimate disaster. Jesus was taken by force the night before, now an illegal show trial and he is condemned to die a  public, horrible death.

What went wrong? The profound shock and despair is beyond words. Wasn't God with this man? Yet, He sends no Legions of Angels to pull Him down from the Cross. Darkness covers the land, and all is lost.

Something that struck me one morning, as we consumed the last of the Reserved Sacrament after the Vigil of the night before, I was near the cold, outer walls of masonry, and pondered how cold the walls of the Tomb must have felt to those who hurriedly laid His broken body in the dark recesses of stone.  Cold   Damp  Dark

The horror is unimaginable, the grief and sadness is over whelming, but more than that, He did it for me... I and my own sin put Him there, on that Cross, in that Tomb.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray You to set Your passion, cross, and death between Your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to Your  Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit You live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.