today is…….

today is good friday. many catholics will be taking leave. it’s a pity good friday is not a public holiday here except in sabah and sarawak. my office give us half day off. just nice as the good friday service in our church will start at 3.00pm 3.00pm was specifically chosen because that was the time that jesus died (so it seemed). most churches choose to have it at 3.00pm while other churches have it later in the evening say after 6.00pm.

as with every year, i’m sure there’ll be a big crowd since good friday is a very important day to catholics. it is said that even those who do not attend sunday mass will sure attend good friday service. good friday and another day – christmas – seems to be the only 2 days in a year that ‘inactive’ or ‘lapsed’ catholics will attend for sure. not only that, sometimes you’ll see non christians attending good friday service and christmas mass too!

good friday is one of the only 2 days in a year of the catholic calendar where fast and abstinence is observed. (the other is ash wednesday). i’m going to take a half boiled egg in the morning then go on a fast right to the evening where i’ll settle on an apple (green apple, i don’t take red apple). abstinence? abstain from the internet? sorry lah, no can do. i have to have my daily dose of internet everyday, mind you.

ok, good friday service consists of four parts: liturgy of the word (readings from bible), general intercession (where prayers for various needs – church and the world are prayed), veneration of the cross and holy communion.

the highlight of the good friday service is the veneration of the cross. the priest will unveil the cross that is hidden by a purple cloth three times, until the cross is exposed; each time chanting “this is the wood of the cross on which hung the saviour” and the people will respond “come let us worship”. there are variations in this chant, depend on the priest which one he wants to use. another good one is “o cross, reign victorious” and the response “o cross, thou will redeem us.”

after the cross had been unveiled, it will be place in the centre for people to venerate it, i.e. to kiss the cross. i remember last year, due to the SARS scare, the kissing of cross was done away with. many people were quite crossed that they did not get to kiss the cross. i too was one of those who objected to not being able to kiss the cross. the decision should be left to the individual. for me, who cares about SARS, when this is something important that happens only once a year. i have faith in the crucified lord that i will not come down with SARS just because i choose to kiss him!! ok back to topic before i started to get annoyed.

yeah back to the service. it seems that quite many people left the church after kissing the cross. i guess they could be those inactive lapsed twice-a-year-come-to church catholics! couldn’t wait to get out of the church ha! of course there are some who have good genuine reason to leave like maybe have to get back to work. as this veneration of the cross is the highlight of the service, many people feel after having gone through it, no point staying since, after the veneration, will the communion service, where we have it everyday.

in the liturgy of the word, there are 3 readings taken from the bible. the 3rd reading, always taken from the gospel, is none other than the passion reading. this reading starts from the time jesus was condemned by pilate and ended with him being buried in the tomb. as the title suggests, it details christ’s passion. this reading will be done like in dialogue style, with the priest holding jesus part.

talking about the mel gibson’s the passion of the christ, those of you who have seen the movie would have agreed that the most shocking part is the scourging of christ. do you know how’s the weapon look like, other than it is a whip? here’s a picture of it:

yes, now you know it is made of pieces of steel, balls of lead and sharp bones, and to imagine how brutal and cruel the scourging done to jesus was, read this:

As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.

this is an excerpt from “the medical view of jesus’ suffering” a pdf. file i received from a friend, complete with many pictures. i had downloaded the files in my mentaljog extra under the ‘file’ section here. you may go there to have a look. hopefully it can be opened. if not, those interested, i can always email it to you. .

as i mentioned before in my blog on the passion of christ, this year good friday would be extra special after having watched mel gibson’s passion of the christ because it really showed me graphically the suffering of christ and made me realised the horrors he had went through for us.

O, My people! What have I done to thee that thou shouldst testify against me? – from The Reproaches