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The pain in my heart is palpable as I watch Jesus, the man whom I have come to know and love more deeply, die. My heart recognizes a moment in my history when I experienced the power of sacrificial love, which lasted to the end and provided me the opportunity to experience such deep and profound compassion. My heart is filled with hope and promise as I look ahead to the resurrected Jesus, who demonstrates that death, pain, and violence do not have the final say. As I await the coming of the resurrected Jesus, I pray that I can grow in love that gives to the end, and I pray for the compassion to walk alongside others who are so in need of this love.

Niccolò dell’Arca’s Mourning over the Dead Christ, often simply called Lamentation, moves us into the depths of Good Friday’s grief. In the Gospel of John, she stands with Mary, the mother of God, at the foot of the Cross. Each figure expresses grief differently, in ways the viewer can identify with, but it is Mary Magdalene who draws our gaze. On Good Friday, sit before Christ’s body, and feel the full weight of grief, not only of that day over 2,000 years ago, but in imagining our own lives without Christ.

Allow your mind’s eye to focus on the colors, the light and shadows, the room or landscape, the faces. Allow your body to savor the smells and tastes and textures. Today, you have cared for yourself by inviting the healing power of something good in your life. That good thing may have happened years ago, but it is still here.

Mass provides a beautiful opportunity to take time in an otherwise busy day to consciously sit in the presence of the person I want to get to know and grow with in love. The more I came to understand Jesus’ way of life and the Gospel message, my love and desire to make time for Jesus grew in my heart. The gratitude and love that wells in my heart is a sure sign of this encounter, as is my desire to continue spending time with Jesus. In all of these ways, I am invited to experience, and indeed, do experience, heart-to-heart encounters with the person of Jesus, my friend.