On Good Friday, Cathedral vice-rector says Passion reveals the truth about us, about God

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

As the one day in the liturgical year that Mass is not celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Good Friday observance, which this year fell on April 3, is a solemn observance and celebration of the Lord’s death and Passion.

Good Friday services include a liturgy marked by solemnity — with a silent procession. It is customary during the liturgy for the congregation to come forward and venerate the cross, typically with a kiss or reverent touch.

Father Ryan Maher, rector, was the celebrant at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption’s Good Friday service. Vice-rector Msgr. Kurt Kemo served as the homilist.

“Good Friday forces us to slow down and look at what our salvation costs,” Msgr. Kemo said during his homily. “Not an idea, not a symbol — a body. Blood poured out of love.”

Msgr. Kemo said that “Jesus does not die peacefully in his sleep. He is betrayed by a friend, abandoned by his disciples … nailed to wood, and yet, this is not defeat.”

“He does not have his life taken from him,” Msgr. Kemo continued. “He hands it over on the cross … The work is complete, the work of love, the work of obedience, the work of redemption. Good Friday reveals the truth about God. God does not save us from a distance, he enters our suffering.”

In addition to this truth, Msgr. Kemo said that Good Friday “also reveals the truth about us.”

“We are the ones who shall be crucified,” he said. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them.’ … God responds to sin not with vengeance, but with mercy — not with power, but with self-giving love. When we venerate the cross before us today, we are not honoring suffering for its own sake. We are honoring love that holds nothing back, love that goes to the very end — love that trusts the Father, even in darkness.”