Good Friday of the Lord's Passion
Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation. Catholics are not obliged under pain of sin to go to church today. We are obliged, under pain of sin, to fast and to abstain from meat, but going to church is optional. We have the option to do the bare minimum that the Catholic Church asks of us, and also the option to do extra (Latin magis), whether at home or in church or somewhere else.
My suggestion for today is to do something extra. Find an optional way to express your love for the cross. Maybe go to a Good Friday service. Maybe do the stations of the cross. Maybe put a little cross in your pocket and carry it with you. Maybe kiss the cross out of reverence and love.
The cross is a sign of contradiction. The tree of death is also the tree of life. As a tool of torture and execution, the cross was a symbol of hatred and destruction. Jesus turned it into a symbol of love and salvation. Because we embrace the love and salvation of Christ, we are able to embrace the hatred and the destruction that he embraced, redeeming all things for the greater glory of God. We humbly seek the courage to do what’s most loving and most true at all times, even if that entails suffering. The cross reminds us that God’s strength can lift up our weakness and make us capable of great deeds. “My servant shall prosper,” he said, “he shall be raised high and greatly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13).