Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus
Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with you the joy of the Gospel.
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day
FIRST READING Isa 52:13-53.12
He was mistreated for our crimes.
From the prophet Isaiah
Behold, my servant will act successfully,
he shall be exalted and exalted and greatly glorified.
As many stood dismayed over him,
so deformed was he, so inhuman in appearance,
and his beauty below that of human children.
So he will strike many nations with astonishment,
kings shall shut their mouths from him,
for what they have not been told, they behold
and what they have not heard, they see.
Who could believe what we have heard
and over whom has the arm of the Lord become visible?
He is praised as a solitary root
and as a root from barren ground;
he had neither stature nor splendour
so that we could look at him,
no appearance so that we could covet him.
Despised and rejected by men,
Man of sorrows and matured by suffering;
As one who hid his face from us,
despised and uncounted by us.
Yet it was our pains he bore
and our sorrows he took upon himself.
We, on the other hand, regard him as one afflicted,
as one who has been beaten and humiliated by God.
Yet he was pierced for our sins,
mistreated for our crimes,
for on him is the punishment for our salvation
and through his wounds there is healing for us.
We all wandered like a flock,
each went his own way,
the Lord let down upon him
the crime of us all.
One mistreated him and he accepted it,
he did not open his mouth.
Like the lamb led to the slaughter
and like the sheep hushed before its shearer,
so he did not open his mouth.
By violent justice, he has been snatched away.
Who is left who thinks about his life?
For he has been taken away from the land of the living,
beaten to death for the sins of my people.
One gives him a grave with the criminals
And with the rich a resting place
Though he has committed no injustice
and there has been no guile in his mouth.
It has pleased the Lord to torment him with blows.
Though he sacrifices himself,
yet he will see an offspring, prolong his days
and the Lord’s wish will be fulfilled by his hand.
For his toil, he will see the light and be satiated.
Because of his insight, my servant as righteous will
justify many
and their crimes he will bring upon himself.
Therefore I will give him portion among the great,
and with the mighty he will divide the spoils
Because he gave up his soul to death
and is counted among sinners.
For he bears the sins of many
and is an intercessor for sinners.
Answer Psalm Ps. 31(30), 2 and 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17 and 25
Refrain
Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.
In You, Lord, I seek refuge,
never fail me.
Righteous God, deliver me.
Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit,
Thou art my redeemer, faithful God.
My enemies mock me,
my neighbours laugh at me.
My friends are frightened when they see me,
in the street they avoid me.
People have forgotten me as if I were dead,
I am like broken household goods.
Still I trust in You, Lord,
always I say: Thou art my God.
Thou hast my fate in Thy hand,
deliver me from my persecutors.
Let thy face shine upon thy servant,
save me by Thy mercy.
Take courage and be fearless,
all of you who hope in the Lord.
SECOND READING Heb 4:14-16;5:7-9
He taught obedience and became the cause of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
From the letter to the Hebrews
Brothers and sisters,
Now that we have an exalted high priest,
one who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
now we must hold fast to our confession.
For we have a high priest
who is able to sympathise with our weaknesses.
He himself was tested in many ways ,
exactly like us, apart from sin.
Let us therefore boldly approach
to the throne of God’s mercy,
to obtain mercy and grace
and timely help.
In the days of his mortal life
Christ, under loud cries and weeping
offered up prayers and supplications to God
Who could save Him from death.
For His piety, He was heard:
Though He was God’s Son,
He learned obedience in the school of suffering;
and when He had reached the end,
He became for all who obey Him,
became the cause of eternal salvation.
Verse for the Gospel Phil. 2:8-9
Praise and honour be to You, Lord Jesus.
Christ became obedient to death for us, to death on a cross.
Therefore God has exalted Him on high and granted Him the name that is above all names. Praise and honour be to Thee, Lord Jesus.
Gospel John 18.1-19.42
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John
At that time
Jesus went out with his disciples,
across the brook Kedron.
There was an orchard there, which He entered with His disciples.
But even Judas, who was to hand Him over, knew this place
because Jesus had often met there with His disciples.
So Judas came there
with the soldiers’ department
and with servants of the high priests and Pharisees,
equipped with lanterns, torches and weapons.
Jesus, who knew all that was about to come about Him,
stepped forward and said to them:
‘Whom seek ye?’
They answered Him:
‘Jesus the Nazarene.’
Jesus said to them:
‘That is I.’
Judas, his betrayer, was also with them.
Hardly had Jesus said to them, ‘That am I.
or they softened and fell to the ground.
Once more He asked them:
‘Whom seek ye?’
They said:
Jesus the Nazarene.’
Jesus replied:
‘I have told thee that it is I.
‘If ye seek Me, let these people go.’
Fulfilled was to be what He had said:
None of those whom Thou hast given Me ,
let Me be lost.
But Simon Peter had a sword with him.
He drew it and with it wounded the servant of the high priest
by cutting off his right ear.
That servant’s name was Malchus.
Jesus, however, spoke to Peter:
‘Put that sword in its sheath;
Should I not drink the cup
which My Father has given Me?’
The ward with the commander and the servants of the Jews
then seized Jesus, handcuffed Him
and brought Him first to Annas.
For this was the father-in-law of Caiaphas
who was high priest that year,
the same Caiaphas who had given advice to the Jews:
It is better for one man to die for the people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now that disciple was an acquaintance of the high priest
and so he went at the same time as Jesus
into the palace of the high priest,
while Peter remained outside the gate.
That other disciple, the high priest’s acquaintance ,
came out,
spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter inside.
The girl standing at the gate asked Peter:
‘Aren’t you also one of that man’s disciples?’
He said:
‘Well.’
As it was cold, the servants and servants had
built a charcoal fire and stood warming themselves.
Peter also stood with them and warmed himself.
The high priest
questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teachings.
Jesus answered him:
‘I have spoken openly to the world.
‘I have always taught
in a synagogue or in the temple
where all the Jews gather
and there is nothing I have spoken in secret.
‘Why do ye question Me?
‘Question the people
Who have heard what I have proclaimed to them.
‘These know well what I have said.’
At this word, one of the servants standing beside Him,
Jesus a slap in the face and added to Him:
‘Dost thou thus answer the high priest?’
Jesus answered him:
‘If I have said anything wrong ,
then declare what was wrong in it;
but if it was right ,
why dost thou smite Me?’
Thereupon Annas sent Him handcuffed to the high priest Caiaphas.
Simon Peter was warming himself up when someone asked him:
‘Are you too not one of His disciples?’
He denied it and said:
‘Well.’
But one of the high priest’s servants,
a kinsman of the man
whom Peter had cut off the ear, said:
‘Did I not see you in the orchard with Him?’
Peter denied it again
and immediately a rooster began to crow.
Then they brought Jesus
from the house of Caiaphas to the pretorium.
It was early in the morning.
They themselves did not enter the pretorium
for they had to be able to eat the paschal meal
and were therefore not allowed to defile themselves.
Therefore Pilate came out and asked them:
‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’
They answered him:
‘If this were not a criminal ,
we would not have handed Him over to you.’
Thereupon Pilate said:
‘Then take Him yourself and sentence Him according to Your Law!’
The Jews answered him;
‘We lack the right to put anyone to death.’
Thus Jesus’ word would be fulfilled
by which He had indicated the death He would die.
Now Pilate entered the pretorium,
called Jesus to himself and said to Him:
‘Art thou the king the Jews?’
Jesus answered him:
‘Do thou say this of thyself
or have the others spoken to thee concerning me?
Pilate replied:
‘Am I sometimes a Jew?
‘Thy own people and the high priests
have handed thee over to me.
‘What hast Thou done?
Jesus replied:
‘My kingship is not of this world.
‘Were My kingship of this world ,
then My servants would have fought to ensure
that I was not delivered to the Jews.
‘My kingship, however, is not of this world.’
Pilate resumed:
‘So thou art king after all?’
Jesus replied:
‘Yes, king I am.
‘To this I was born and to this I have come into the world,
to bear witness to the truth.
‘All who are of the truth listen to My voice.’
Pilate said to Him:
‘What is truth?’
After those words, He went out again to the Jews and said:
‘I find no guilt in Him at all.
‘But there is a custom among you
that at Easter I release someone.
‘Wilt thou therefore that I release unto thee the king of the Jews?’
Then they started shouting again:
‘Nay, not that one
but Barabbas!’
Barabbas was a robber.
Then Pilate had Jesus scourged.
The soldiers wove a crown of thorn branches,
put it on His head
and threw a purple cloak on Him.
They stepped up to Him and said:
‘Hail, King of the Jews!’
And they slapped Him in the face.
Pilate went out again and said to them:
‘Behold, I bring Him out to make you know
that I find absolutely no fault in Him.’
So Jesus came out
while He was still wearing the crown of thorns and the purple dressing gown.
Pilate said to them:
‘Behold the man.’
But when the high priests and servants saw Him ,
they shouted:
‘Crucify, crucify!’
Pilate said to them:
‘Then take Him and crucify Him
for I find no fault in Him.’
The Jews answered him:
‘We have a Law
and according to that Law He must die
because He gave Himself up for the Son of God.’
When Pilate heard this, he became even more fearful.
He entered the pretorium again and spoke to Jesus:
‘Where art Thou from?’
Jesus, however, did not answer him.
Therefore Pilate said:
‘Thou dost not speak to me?
‘Knowest thou not then that I have the power to acquit
but also have the power to crucify Thee?’
Jesus replied:
‘Ye would have absolutely no power over Me
if it had not been given to thee from above.
‘Therefore
the sin of him who delivered Me over to you is greater.’
From this moment
Pilate wanted to proceed to release Him.
But the Jews shouted:
‘If you release that man, you are no friend of the emperor.
‘Whoever pretends to be king,
opposes the emperor.’
When Pilate heard them shouting this
he had Jesus brought out
and sat down on the judgment seat,
in the place called Litostrotos, in Hebrew Gabbata.
It was the preparation day for Easter,
about the sixth hour.
He said to the Jews:
‘Here is your king.’
But they shouted:
‘Away, away with Him! Crucify Him!’
Pilate asked:
‘Shall I then crucify your king?’
The high priests replied:
‘We have no king but the emperor!’
Then he handed Him over to them to suffer death on the cross,
and they took Him over.
Carrying His cross Himself
Jesus went out of the city to what is called the Place of Skulls,
in Hebrew Golgotha.
There they beat Him to the cross,
and with Him two more,
one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had also had an inscription made
and had it affixed to the cross.
It read: Jesus, the Nazarene,
the king of the Jews.
Many Jews read this inscription,
for the place where Jesus was crucified,
was close to the city.
It was written there in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Now the high priests of the Jews said to Pilate:
‘You were not to put on it: ‘the king of the Jews’ but:
‘He said, I am the king of the Jews’.
’ Pilate replied:
‘What I have written, I have written.’
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus ,
they took his clothes and divided them into quarters,
one part for each soldier.
They also took the bodice skirt
which, however, was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.
Therefore they said to each other:
‘Let us not tear it
but draw lots to see who gets it.’
Thus the scripture was to be fulfilled:
They divided my garments among themselves
and played dice for my garment.
While the soldiers were doing this,
standing by Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister,
Mary, the wife of Klopas, and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus saw his mother
and next to her the disciple whom He loved,
He said to His mother:
‘Woman, behold your son.’
Then He said to the disciple:
‘Behold thy mother.’
And from that moment the disciple took her into his home.
After this, knowing that now all was accomplished,
Jesus said, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ’
I am thirsty.’
A jug full of sour wine stood there.
They dipped a sponge in it,
put it on a hyssop stem and brought it to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken of the sour wine, He said:
‘It is finished.’
Thereupon He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.
(Here all knelt for some time.)
Since it was preparation day
and the Jews did not want
for the bodies to remain on the cross on Sabbath
– it was, moreover, a great Sabbath –
they asked Pilate for leave
to break the legs of the crucified and take them away.
So the soldiers came
and smashed both the one and the other who had been crucified with Him,
breaking the legs.
However, when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead,
they did not break His legs,
but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance;
Immediately blood and water came out.
He who saw it bears witness to this;
his testimony is true
And he knows that he speaks the truth,
that ye also may believe.
This happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled:
‘Of his bones nothing shall be shattered’,
while yet another scripture says:
‘They shall look up to Him whom they have pierced’.
Joseph of Arimatéa,
who was a disciple of Jesus
but in secret for fear of the Jews,
then asked Pilate
to be allowed to take away the body of Jesus.
When Pilate had granted this,
he therefore went and took the body away.
Nicodemus, who had previously visited Him by night, also came
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about a hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and wrapped it with the fragrant herbs in bandages,
as is customary in a Jewish funeral.
In the place where He was crucified was a garden
and in that garden a new tomb
into which no one had ever been laid.
Because of the Jews’ preparation day
and because the tomb was nearby,
they laid Jesus in it.
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Fratelli tutti
Encyclical of
POPE FRANCISCUS
On brotherhood and social friendship
252. However, we are not talking about impunity. But justice
is only adequately sought out of love for justice itself, out of
respect for the victims, to prevent new crimes and protect the
common good, not as a perceived outlet for
own anger. Forgiveness is precisely what makes it possible to seek justice
seek justice without falling into the vicious cycle of revenge or the
injustice of forgetting.
To be continued
Every day at 1 am
The Bible text in this edition is taken from The New Bible Translation,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Fratelli tutti Official Engels translation
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