Good Friday – 03rd April 2026

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today is a day of silence. A day when the bells do not ring, a day when the altar is empty, a day when we look at the cross more than we speak. Good Friday is not easy to explain – Good Friday is something we contemplate. Today we do not try to understand everything with our minds, but we try to stay with our hearts near the cross.

The Gospel of John shows us the Passion of Jesus as a journey of love. It is not only the story of suffering – it is the story of a love that does not stop. Jesus is betrayed, arrested, judged, mocked, beaten, condemned, and crucified. And in all this, we do not see hatred in him, we do not see revenge. We see a love that remains.

There is a moment in the Gospel that says a lot: when the soldiers come to arrest him and ask, “Whom are you looking for?” Jesus answers, “I am he.” And he adds, “If you are looking for me, let these men go.” Even at the moment of his arrest, Jesus protects others, Jesus offers himself, Jesus puts himself in the place of others. This is what love does: it gives itself. On the way of the cross we meet many people, and if we are honest, we can find ourselves in them.

There is Peter, who follows from a distance and then says, “I do not know him.” This is fear. This is weakness. These are the moments when we are afraid to say that we belong to God. There is Pilate, who asks, “What is truth?” and even though he knows Jesus is innocent, he condemns him. He is the image of the person who knows what is right but chooses what is easier. There are the soldiers who just do their job without thinking about the suffering in front of them. This is indifference.

But there is also Mary, his mother, who stands near the cross. She cannot change anything. She cannot stop the suffering. But she stays there. Sometimes the greatest love is not to solve the problem, but to stay near the one who suffers.

On the cross, Jesus says, “I thirst.” It is not only the thirst of the body. It is the thirst for love, the thirst for souls, the thirst for our hearts. God thirsts for us. What a mystery.

And then he says, “It is finished.” This does not mean “everything is over,” but “love has gone to the end.” Everything has been given. Nothing has been kept for himself.

Good Friday shows us a very different God from the one the world imagines. The world believes in a powerful God who dominates. Today we see a crucified God who loves. The world believes in power. God shows us love.