BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TODAY (Mar. 29) is Good Friday, the holiest day for Christians the world over. It is a day that I had dreaded as a small boy growing up in Stanleytown, New Amsterdam in the county of Berbice in Guyana.
My resentment of Good Fridays was based on two factors – my ignorance of its significance and my lust for food with meat. However, before sharing my boyhood experience of this special day with you, let me first delve into its origin and significance, which is not shared by some religious bodies, individuals and atheists.
Good Friday is the day that precedes Easter Sunday when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. It is said that He died on a cross to rescue us by paying the price to set us free from sin, free from judgment and free from death.
Evidence of this belief lies in Mark 10:45 when Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
It is said that Jesus was crucified on the charge of claiming to be King of the Jews. And leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus was betrayed by Judas with a kiss for 30 pieces of silver in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was arrested by the Temple Guards and taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas the High Priest of the Sanhedrin, where he was interrogated but with little results. From there, He was bound and sent to Caiaphas where the Sanhedrin had assembled.
Many conflicting testimonies were brought against Him and numerous questions asked, to which He did not answer. However, Caiaphas commanded Him to answer under solemn oath, saying, “I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?” Jesus, with ambiguity, replied, “You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven.”
This response infuriated High Priest Caiaphas and he condemned Jesus for blasphemy, following which the Sanhedrin concurred with a death sentence.
According to Luke 23:1-2, on the morning of the following day, Jesus was taken before Governor Pontius Pilate, charged with subversion, opposing taxes to Caesar and making Himself a king. Pilate authorised the Sanhedrin to judge Jesus according to Jewish laws and execute His sentence. The Jewish leaders however had told him that the Romans do not allow them to carry out death sentences. So a reluctant Pilate decided to question Jesus, after which he told them that there was no basis for sentencing.
Pilate had sensed the Jewish leaders’ anger and after finding out that Jesus was from Galilee, he referred the case to King Herod. However, after questioning Jesus and receiving no answer, Herod sent Him back to Pilate. Once again, Pilate questioned Jesus and in conclusion told the Jewish leaders that neither he nor King Herod had found guilt in Him. He then ordered that Jesus be flogged.
After the fogging, Pilate brought Jesus out to the crowd to release Him, but the Chief Priests had informed him of a new charge in which they said Jesus claimed to be God’s son and they demanded He be sentenced to death. With this new charge, Pilate decided to further question Jesus and in particular to know from whence He came.
Pilate, for the last time, brought Jesus out to the crowd and declared that He was innocent. And to show that he played no part in Jesus’ condemnation, Pilate washed his own hands in water. And in an effort to avoid a riot that would have led to him losing his job, Pilate handed Jesus over to the Jewish leaders and the crowd to be crucified.
It is said that Jesus was in agony on the cross for six hours and that during His last three (from 12 noon to 3:00 p.m.) darkness fell over the land and with a loud cry He gave up his spirit. Following His death, there was an earthquake, tombs were broken and the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom, while the centurion on guard at the site of the crucifixion declared, “Truly this was God’s Son!”
Good Friday is said to be a day of strict abstinence and Catholics over the age of 18 and under 60 are required to fast. This fast means that they can eat only one full meal (which must be smaller that their regular meal) and two smaller ones, which together do not have the same quantity of a full meal, and they must not contain any meat kind.
Also on this day, Catholics over the age of 14 are required to refrain from eating any meat or any food made with meat. And that is what caused me to dread Good Fridays.
I could not have fathomed the reason for my mother not cooking a meal with meat on that day and I truly did not know the significance of Jesus’ crucifixion. It was not until it was explained to me as I got older.
What caused me to abhor Good Fridays?
Well, in addition to knowing that my mother would prepare three square meals every day for the family of 10 and lunch as well as dinner always had meat within, Good Friday was a day when no egg would be served at breakfast...only tea with cross-bun. After breakfast, my father would ensure that I leave with the older ones for church; and that service would last for about two hours.
We would then return home and after consuming porridge (either cornmeal, rice, flour, sago, plantain or vermicelli) and back to church from noon until 3:00 p.m. While in church, the three-part service would take the form of telling the story of the Passion, the veneration of the cross and Holy Communion. All the while there would be a rumbling sound only heard by those sitting close to me in the third pew. It was the sound made by my indisciplined stomach.
At times I would ‘doze off’ only to feel a hunch to my ribs or a tap to the back of my head. I would have deliberately dozed because I wanted to ignore the cries of my stomach. And what made it worse, is that at the end of the service the adults would converge outside the church in small groups discussing what took place while I have to wait until the conversation ends. It often takes from 15 to 30 minutes to end.
But that was only part of my agony. When we arrive home, each one would have the remnants of the porridge and had to wait until after 6:00 p.m. to have a full meal with meat. It is only then that my resentment of Good Fridays would have abated.
Even if I had money to purchase a meal from an eatery, that would have been impossible because all business entities would have been closed on that day. It was a holiday and it was against the law to have one’s establishment opened for business during certain hours of that day. But today it is different, because even the owners of liquor stores ply their trade on Good Fridays.
I am no longer a little boy…I am a senior citizen. The origin and significance are better understood and I no longer dread Good Fridays.
