The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
There is so much to take in at this Good Friday service. There is the Passion Narrative from the Gospel of John, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Solemn Intercessions. I am confident that your priest will preach very short today. Is he tired after a long Lent and busy Holy Week? Is he choosing to dedicate his homily preparation time to the upcoming Easter Masses? Is he trying to get everyone home at a decent hour? All of these would probably explain it. But the easiest explanation is that the instructions in the Roman Missal, the book with all of the liturgical prayers for the year, tells him what to do here: “After the reading of the Lord’s Passion, the Priest gives a brief homily.” Brief. The Church tells us priests to be brief just in case we are too oblivious to read the room. Just in case we are tempted to believe we need to give anything substantial to the most important moment in all of history.
In Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, an injured Kirk Gibson took the plate in the bottom of the 9th. Kirk Gibson stood at the plate for more than five minutes, clearly in incredible pain. He swung hard at the seventh pitch, and hit a walk-off home run! The Dodgers won. Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully announced the ball was over the fence. And then nothing. In fact, he remained quiet for 77 seconds. Letting the moment speak for itself. He broke the silence with these words: "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!"
Today, in this Liturgy, we are brought into the moment that Jesus Christ gives everything. The impossible has happened. Our Lord has suffered and died to conquer our sin. Today, we are silent. Take it all in.
Fr. Christopher Meyer is the parochial vicar at St. Faustina in Fulshear, TX. Born in Houston, raised in Sugar Land, and a graduate of Strake Jesuit and Texas A&M, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2022. In addition to celebrating Mass and absolving sins, Fr. Christopher loves spending time with friends, the Rosary, sports, and reading (the best book: Island of the World by Michael O'Brien).