Good Friday

It is late Friday afternoon, Jesus is dead. Only the evening before he was at the Last Supper table celebrating the Passover with his disciples.

After supper, things began to go very, very bad. One of the twelve went off to betray Jesus. All of them fled when he was arrested and they haven't been seen since - except Peter, who returned only to deny Jesus three times.

The disciples will be seen just one more time in Matthew's Gospel - after the resurrection - and it isn't entirely laudatory: The eleven disiples went to Galilee, to the Mountain
to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw
him they worshipped, but they doubted.
That is their final appearance in Matthew's Gospel. By contrast, the women followers of Jesus (Mt 27:55-56) are there when Jesus dies, and they are there when he is buried. Faithful to the end. May it be said of me when I die.

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Immediately after the death of Jesus, Matthew symbolically brings out its meaning:

• The veil of the sanctuary barred entrance to all but the Jewish priest. Now it is torn in two and all have access to God through Jesus.
• The earthquake indicates that the foundations of the earth are shaken. The reign of God is beginning.
• The rising of the dead gives evidence that the death of Jesus is life-giving.
• The profession of faith by the Roman ceturion is a sign of the Gentiles becoming disciples of Jesus (Mt 27:51-54) .

The death-resurrection of jesus is a turning point of history. During the three days of the Sared Triduum, I enter into the dying and rising of Jesus.