Great Friday
Great Week. Strict Fast. Abstention from meat, dairy and eggs, and foods that contain these ingredients. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Matins – John 13:31-18:1; John 18:1-28; Matthew 26:57-75; John 18:28-19:16; Matthew 27:3-32 Mark 15:16-32; Matthew 27:33-54; Luke 23:32-49; John 19:25-37; Mark 15:43-47; John 19:38-42; Matthew 27:62-66; First Hour – Zechariah 11:10-13; Galatians 6:14-18; Matthew 27:1-56; Third Hour – Isaiah 50:4-11; Romans 5:6-11; Mark 15:16-41; Sixth Hour – Isaiah 52:13-54:1; Hebrews 2:11-18; Luke 23:32-49; Ninth Hour – Jeremiah 11:18-23; 12:15,9-11,14,15; Hebrews 10:19-31; John 18:28-19:37; Vespers – Exodus 33:11-23; Job 42:12-16; Isaiah 52:13-54:1; 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2; Matthew 27:1-38; Luke 23:39-43; Matthew 27:39-54; John 19:31-37; Matthew 27:55-61.
Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
During Great Vespers on Saturday evenings throughout the year, we periodically pray this sticheron in the seventh tone:
O Christ, although You were taken captive by Your enemies,* I still acknowledge You as my God,* and am not ashamed of You;* I will not hide the fact that You were nailed to the Cross.* Your death is my life, almighty Lord,* and I extol Your resurrection.* O Lover of mankind, glory to You!
In today’s reading from his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul addresses the absurdity of the cross. How absurd it is for the unchangeable, all-powerful God to become a man and die a shameful, horrific, public death! In paradise God commanded Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). Today, the God Who cast Adam and Eve out of paradise for eating of a tree now Himself willingly accepts death on the tree of the cross and promises that the repentant thief will enter with Him into paradise.
In the sticheron, we say we still acknowledge Christ as our God and are not ashamed of Him. There are people in the world who cannot accept Christ’s divinity for undergoing such a terrible, scandalous death, unfitting for the God of the universe. However, the Good News we are celebrating is not only that Christ is risen from the dead but also that we have such a God Who loves us to this absurd extent! We have a God Who will endure all of this for us in order to bring us back to the paradise which was lost in the beginning.