There’s Always One…..

For many years now, I have made it a point to get off work and attend the Good Friday services. Since I sing in the choir, it helps to add another voice to the musical offerings. The Good Friday liturgy lasts for an hour and the Stations of the Cross that follow add another two. So why would someone want to sit on a hard bench for three hours? Because the reward is so great.

The readings for the Stations of the Cross are some of the most poignant in our liturgy. The long silent pauses only serve to accentuate their power. Some of the most beautiful music has been written for the Good Friday service. I had a creative streak many years ago and wrote a few songs myself. I am certainly the least of all composers, but the best song I ever wrote is based on Good Friday readings. I have done it a time or two at our services.

Every year, there’s always one musical offering that will bring tears to my eyes. Sometimes it has been “The Reproaches”:
“Oh My people, what have I done to thee, and wherein have I wearied thee?....”
Other times it has been Helen’s heart-felt rendering of “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” She always says she should quit doing it, but the rest of us in the choir always encourage her to do it one more time. She sings it with such confidence and ease (and never needs any music to do it!). Other years, including this one, it has been the “Stabat Mater”, Hymn 159, which gets to me:
“At the cross her vigil keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping,
where he hung, the dying Lord. There she waited in her anguish,
seeing Christ in torment languish, in her heart the piercing sword….”
I have been fortunate never having to keep a vigil with someone who is dying, but I am reminded of the time I kept a vigil at my younger son’s bedside when he was very sick with pneumonia and was on the cusp between life and death. It is a painful place to be. I can only imagine Mary’s anguish.

So, is the service on Good Friday long? Yes, it is. It is worth the time spent? Absolutely.

Bruce Lafitte
April 2010