GOOD FRIDAY 2020

INTRO:

I am sure you all have seen pictures or may even have visited SAINT PETER’S BASILICA. Try and imagine that high altar and the Bernini columns holding up the baldachin over the altar…

BREATHTAKING.

When I did visit Rome in 2008 the art tour guide took us priests on a tour and when we approached the high altar she pointed out FOUR LARGE STATUES, positioned in such a way as to look at the altar. She said these sacred images are all saints that had something to do with the CRUCIFIXION of JESUS!
Never heard that before…
1. Saint Andrew (was crucified like Jesus but upside down!)
2. Saint Veronica (wiped the face of Jesus)
3. Saint Helena (brought the relics of the true cross to ROME from Constantinople)
&
4. Saint Longinus

When she mentioned Saint Longinus we all looked at her and said….NEVER HEARD OF HIM???

She explained that “Longinus” was the Roman Centurion who pierced Jesus’s side and blood and water flowed out, thus…..BAPTIZING HIM and later having a martyrs death as he became a CHRISTIAN, leaving his Roman military post!

Today, in a way, like those statues, YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS ALTAR OF YOUR HOME CHURCH … from the live stream … and this altar represents BOTH the sacrifice of JESUS, his CRUCIFIXION, and the table of holy communion.

And as you look at this altar YOU so appreciate that great love of Christ on the Cross for us and you also long for that sacred bread to nourish us so that all of us can best imitate the JESUS we love!

On this GOOD FRIDAY you venerate the cross, pray for the world, and make a spiritual HOLY COMMUNION.

+The kiss of the cross that happens today by me representing all of you is your most respectful act of honor, thanksgiving, and love that you can make.

+Praying for the world today at this service is following Jesus’s words: “ASK and you shall receive.”

&

+Making a spiritual holy communion connects you to JESUS himself to patiently endure this world situation.

CONCLUSION