DIOCESE—Although attendance was limited, Good Friday services were held throughout the Diocese of Rockford much like usual.

 

One significant difference was the manner of veneration of the crucifix. Instead of having the congregation come forward to touch, kiss or otherwise reverence the crucifix from up close, the crucifix was held up and parishioners knelt, bowed and otherwise showed their appreciation for Jesus’ Passion and death on the cross.

 

Even so, the service at the Cathedral of St. Peter and at other parishes was otherwise similar amidst the COVID-19 protocols.

 

At the Cathedral, Bishop David Malloy spoke that Good Friday afternoon about the reading of the Passion and how “we observe once again ... the human weakness that surrounded Christ at this moment, but we recognize also the courage, the spiritual goodness that periodically broke out (and) that gave Him comfort in those hours.”

 

The bishop elaborated on two moments in that Gospel — Jesus and Pilate’s conversation about “truth,” and Jesus’ gift of Mary to St. John and to all His followers.

 

“Our age, frankly struggles mightily with the truth in our time,” Bishop Malloy said. “We’ve got things in some ways backwards,” even to the point where instead of conforming to the truth of God, “we seek at times to conform God to what we decide is the truth.”

 

He pointed to the cross as “the price of sin” and the “cost of truth,” then noted that “whatever those struggles, we are pointed towards Easter if we have been faithful to Christ on the Cross ...

 

“Going from the cross to Easter resurrection shows us where the truth will lead.”

 

Bishop Malloy ended his homily reflecting on the Blessed Mother.

 

“She has been made the Mother of the Church ... and even more ... she has been made the mother of each one of us,” he said.

 

“As Jesus dies, we know the faith of the apostles had waned ... except for one, the one who is full of grace, Mary herself. The Church’s faith resided, the world’s faith resided, in her ...

 

“From that shadow of the cross even until now, she remains fully and truly our Mother.”