HOLY FRIDAY, This Friday 15 April is a day of privation for Christians in memory of the crucifixion of Jesus. Practitioners are called to abstinence and fasting or not to eat meat, as this would be an inappropriate act according to the Church. Meat was considered a noble food that was eaten during the festivals. Fasting is supposed to recall the 40 days spent in the desert by Jesus, who was tempted several times by the devil. Synonymous with purification among Christians, fasting is less followed among Protestants and Orthodox.
A Ukrainian and a Russian family will carry the crucifix together during a station of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday presided over by Pope Francis.
Two families, one Russian and one Ukrainian, are expected to carry the crucifix together for a station during the traditional Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome on Good Friday, while a meditation on the death of Jesus, which echoes the consequences of war, is read. Ukrainian religious leaders reacted negatively to this initiative, judging it “premature” and even “offensive”.
The end of the conflict still seems too unlikely, too far away. Souls, hearts and bodies are too raw to look forward to the future with serenity, while Ukraine continues to be bombed and abused by the Russian army.
But the role of the liturgy is not to designate the camp of the aggressors and the camp of the aggressed. If the liturgy takes sides, it is in favour of peace between peoples, a peace promised by God and to which humanity aspires and must work.
Associating a Russian family and a Ukrainian family in the same process, making them carry the cross together to show what binds them beyond all that can separate them, is a gesture of immense hope in this promise. It is a hope that does not ignore the obstacles on the road to peace, but which has its source in a God who breaks down the “walls of hatred” (cf. Ephesians 2:14).
A hope that is at the heart of the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ celebrated in these days. Happy Easter.
