Mangaluru: The Friday before Easter, Good Friday, is one of great significance to Christians around the world. It was observed with great faith and devotion in the diocese on April 14, 2017.
On Good Friday, the services in all the churches had the Gospel reading of St John, which was read in a singing intonation and consisted of the first part of the liturgical service.
As is the custom every year, Bishop Dr Aloysius D’Souza led the congregation in prayerful worship at the Rosario Cathedral in Mangaluru. The sufferings of Christ were recited by the Bishop along with the other priests.
The second part was the unveiling and veneration of the Cross, and the third part was the receiving of the Eucharist.
In his homily, Fr Vincent D’Souza said that the feelings that the Lord had for us humans was boundless. Continuing Fr Vincent said, ”When we recall the suffering of Christ, one can realize how his feelings were when he was dying on the cross. There are no limitations for human feelings. Jesus died an unnatural death; he did not commit any sin but he died for our sins to save us from the fire of hell. We need to understand the meaning of relationships. We need to bring peace in our families and we need to forgive others like Jesus did”.
Recalling a story of a man Principal of Rosario College Fr Vincent said, “Once a man who was with his friend in a bar, out of rage stabbed his friend to death. When other people who were at the bar witnessed the incident, the man who had stabbed and killed his friend fled from the bar. As he was trying to escape, people followed him. The man soon entered a Christian’s house, explaining to the owner of the house what had happened and the death of his friend, he begged for shelter. The owner of the house seeing the man and the blood stained clothes he was wearing said, “I have only one room and it is difficult to accommodate you. He then said, give me your blood stained shirt and you wear mine.” The killer agreed to wear the shirt of the house owner and escaped from the people. But the people who were searching for the killer caught hold of the house owner, thrashed him well and handed him over to the police. The police filed a murder case against him and finally the innocent was given the death sentence. When the actual killer came to know that the innocent man will be hanged because of him, he ran to the police station and confessed his crime. But the police were not ready to listen to him, they asked him to go to the court. When the killer went to the court and confessed his crime, the judge said, “I am sorry, We have already hanged the man”. Likewise, Jesus was innocent and he died for our sins. He did not commit any crime but he was crucified for our sins. In our life, we should follow in the footsteps of Jesus and Mary. We need to be good to others and show to the world that we are the followers of Jesus Christ who died on the cross to save us from sins.”
The body of Jesus Christ was lowered from the cross and later taken in a procession.
Parish Priest of Rosario Cathedral Fr J B Crasta, Msgr Denis Moras Prabhu, Asst Parish Priest of Rosario Cathedral Fr Paul D’Souza and Principal of Rosario College Fr Rockey Fernandes were also present.
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