Since the earliest times of the Church, no Mass has been offered on Good Friday. Instead the service has consisted of a solemn procession, readings (including the Passion in the Gospel of St. John), a series of petitions, the veneration of the cross, and a Communion service.
Good Friday is the one day of the entire Church year when Mass may not be celebrated. And this may be somewhat surprising. At every Mass, Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross is made present. It would seem that Good Friday is the one day that Mass should be celebrated as we gather solemnly for the commemoration of the Holy Passion and Death of Our Lord.
Why, of all days, is Mass not celebrated on Good Friday?
St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian in Church history took up this question in his Summa Theologiae. He wrote: “The figure ceases on the advent of the reality….the sacrament is a figure and a representation of our Lord's Passion…And therefore on the day on which our Lord's Passion is recalled as it was really accomplished, this sacrament is not consecrated.”
St. Thomas Aquinas is saying, that on Good Friday, we who gather in commemoration of the Lord’s passion are present on Calvary in such a unique way that we don’t need to celebrate Mass. Through the Good Friday Liturgy, we are united to Christ—sharing in his sacrifice. This is seen through the rituals of this day: the priests begin laying prostrate, the people kneel, as if at the foot of the cross, calling to mind the full reality of his sacrifice.
The scriptures are read with such solemnity that we are transported in time, 2000 years ago, to that sorrowful day.
Our prayers, for the needs of the world and needs of the Church are so solemn, so intense, in order to recognize that in the sacrifice of the Cross God has answered all prayers.
Following our solemn petitions, we will come forward to venerate the Holy Cross, the instrument of our salvation. We come forward as if coming to THE ONE CROSS—the very cross of Calvary.
It was not until about the year 800, that the practice of receiving Holy Communion on Good Friday was established. St. Thomas Aquinas explains this too, when he says, “lest the Church be deprived on Good Friday of the fruit of the Passion offered to us by this sacrament, the body of Christ consecrated the day before is reserved to be consumed...”
Though Mass is not celebrated, we receive today the fruit of the Passion, in Holy Communion, the saving flesh and blood of Jesus, after venerating the Holy Cross, the instrument of our salvation. Eternal life won for us on the cross is bequeathed to us in Holy Communion; for as our Lord said, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”
Today is called “Good” because it is the fount of our salvation. The sounds, the sights, the emotions of Good Friday are to permeate our lives—they are to echo throughout the entire Church year, lest we ever forget that it is not by our own deeds that we come to heaven, but by his labor of love embracing pain and suffering beyond all telling for our redemption.
We keep this day solemn by kneeling, laying prostrate on Calvary; we place ourselves under the shadow of the cross, that his blood may wash us clean, that his will obedient to the Father unto death may spurn us on in our spread of the Gospel, that his perseverance may help us remain faithful to God throughout all of life’s trials and tribulations, that his love for sinners may beat in our hearts.
As we approach the cross and receive the flesh and blood of Our Savior this day, in the words of St. Paul “let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” and moreso, as Christ himself “offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears” let us too tearfully, reverently, honestly, and with great love, offer ourselves with Christ as a living sacrifice to God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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