April 2 : Good Friday : By His Wounds We Have Healed.

 

First Reading  IS 52:13—53:12
Responsorial Psalm PS 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Second Reading  HEB 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Gospel Reading   JN 18:1—19:42

Today we venerate the wood of the Cross because it was by His Cross that Jesus redeemed the world. No one can separate Jesus from His Cross: Where Christ is there is the Cross and where there is the Cross there is Jesus. The world may look at the Cross as a threat or as a curse or as a headache. But for a Christian the Cross is the road to salvation and holiness. Pope St. John Paul II said on the canonization of Bl. Padre Pio “difficulties and pain, is accepted with love become a privileged path to sanctity”. Each one of us has been given some type of a Cross. The presence of the Cross in our lives tells us that we are in the surest road to sanctity. Therefore let us ask the grace to embrace our little crosses with love. Because it is in the Cross that we find forgiveness, healing and salvation