Christianity: The Goodness of Good Friday - by Chris Armstrong

Good Friday: a day of sadness and mourning but also of Hope 

What a supreme paradox. We now call the day Jesus was crucified, Good.

Many believe this name simply evolved—as language does. They point to the earlier designation, "God's Friday," as its root. (This seems a reasonable conjecture, given that "goodbye" evolved from "God be with you.")

Whatever its origin, the current name of this holy day offers a fitting lesson to those of us who assume (as is easy to do) that "good" must mean "happy." We find it hard to imagine a day marked by sadness as a good day.

Of course, the church has always understood that the day commemorated on Good Friday was anything but happy. Sadness, mourning, fasting, and prayer have been its focus since the early centuries of the church. A fourth-century church manual, the Apostolic Constitutions, called Good Friday a "day of mourning, not a day of festive Joy." Ambrose, the fourth-century archbishop who befriended the notorious sinner Augustine of Hippo before his conversion, called it the "day of bitterness on which we fast."

Many Christians have historically kept their churches unlit or draped in dark cloths. Processions of penitents have walked in black robes or carried black-robed statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. And worshippers have walked the "Stations of the Cross," praying and singing their way past 14 images representing Jesus' steps along the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha.

Yet, despite—indeed because of—its sadness, Good Friday is truly good. Its sorrow is a godly sorrow. It is like the sadness of the Corinthians who wept over the sharp letter from their dear teacher, Paul, convicted of the sin in their midst. Hearing of their distress, Paul said, "My joy was greater than ever." Why? Because such godly sorrow "brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret" (2 Cor. 7:10).

I like to think the linguistic accident that made "God's Friday" into "Good Friday" was no accident at all. It was God's own doing—a sharp, prophetic jab at a time and a culture obsessed by happiness. In the midst of consumerism's Western playground, Good Friday calls to a jarring halt the sacred "pursuit of happiness." The cross reveals this pursuit for what it is: a secondary thing.

This commemoration of Christ's death reminds us of the human sin that caused this death. And we see again that salvation comes only through godly sorrow—both God's and, in repentance, ours. To pursue happiness, we must first experience sorrow. He who goes forth sowing tears returns in joy.

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Easter 2015: Start Of Passover, Good Friday Fall On Same Day

This Friday marks the first time in many years that both the Christian holiday Good Friday and the start of Jewish Passover have fallen on the same day.

Processions like the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge Friday morning will be held worldwide to remember the day Jesus was crucifie by the Romans.

As CBS2’s Andrea Grymes reports, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Way of the Cross bridge. Anyone is welcomed to join in the walk, which started at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint James in Brooklyn. The march ends at Saint Peter’s Church in downtown Manhattan around 1:30 p.m.

In Jerusalem, the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows, retraces the path of Jesus Christ on his way to crucifixion. In New Jersey’s Upper Saddle River on Good Friday, there’s a bit of a twist.

Pastor Bob Stag leads parishioners from the Church of the Presentation on a 12-mile bike tour for the Stations of the Cross.

“It is a mini-pilgrimage and I’ve been to the holy land several times and most people won’t ever get to the holy land or ever get to pilgrimage to Rome or pilgrimage in northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. But everybody, well, almost everybody, can jump on a bike and follow me around,” he told WCBS 880’s Sean Adams.

For prayers, reflection and meditation, they stop at seven churches– three of them Protestant. The ministers come out and discuss their church’s architectural significance.

The eight-day Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown Friday night and commemorates the Israelites’ escape from Egyptian slavery more than 3,000 years ago.

During the first two nights, families gather for a Passover Seder, the ritual meal which features six symbolic foods, including matzo. Matzo is a cracker-like unleavened bread that symbolizes the exodus from Egypt, when there wasn’t enough time to let the bread rise.

Read more: Start Of Passover, Good Friday Fall On Same Day « CBS New York