Good Friday: What Makes it "Good"?
Our ritual texts on Good Friday name this liturgy as the "CELEBRATION" of the Lord's Passion. This is not a celebration like a party or a joyous and rousing event, rather, it is a continuing celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord that we have been celebrating and will continue to celebrate into Easter.
Although our focus or emphasis on this day is on the death of the Lord, it is not in the mode of an historical event only. In other words, we don't celebrate this liturgy like it's a funeral. Instead, we approach Good Friday with thankful hearts because we know that THE DEATH WE COMMEMORATE THIS DAY ENDED IN RESURRECTION.
Human life is not a party, but because we know that the death we commemorate this day ended in resurrection, this day is a celebration. As God has triumphed in the death of Jesus, God will triumph in the deaths we face every day and finally, on our last earthly day.
On this day, we give ourselves over to the Reign of God, just as Jesus did, so that on our last day in this life, this handing over our life will be nothing new. We will have grown in our trust of God's handling our life; we will have nothing in our life that keeps us from giving to God what is rightfully God's - our very self.
So, while our hearts are heavy because Jesus had to die this day this way, (as a victim of capital punishment, abandoned by his friends, betrayed, mocked, etc., all of which stands to remind us of our fickle faith), we are full of awe of the love that God has for us.
