Chad Pecknold , associate professor, theology, published an essay on Good Friday in First Things. See below.
From: First Things Date: April 3, 2015 Author: C.C. Pecknold
The celebration of the Passion of the Lord is dramatic. It is the climax of all sacrifice. The curtain is torn. The temple is destroyed. On this day, when "Christ our passover was sacrificed," the Christians fall prostrate in grief and sorrow. The whole range of human emotions experienced in the life of Christ are now on bended knee-sorrowful suffering, dripping blood, bloody flesh-the grief is palpable.
After so many penitential prayers, after the palms have been folded into little crosses, after so many small reminders of sacrifice along the way, we find ourselves spiritually stripped down before the enormity of Christ crucified. In my Catholic parish, we do not even celebrate the Eucharist; in fact, the rubrics do not permit any sacraments to be celebrated, except for penance and anointing-sacraments especially tied to sin and death. Our attention is fixed on Calvary.
Perhaps it should seem odd not to celebrate the Eucharist on Good Friday. Shouldn't we, at the crucial climax of the Holy Triduum, celebrate the body and blood of Jesus Christ? Yet Catholics, and many other Christians do not, and have not since the early church. St. Augustine once observed that "Christ is sacrificed once in Himself, and daily in his sacrament," therefore "receive the Eucharist daily that it may benefit you every day." Yet the Bishop of Hippo also did not celebrate the Eucharist on this day.
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