Christianity: The Goodness of Good Friday - by Chris Armstrong

Good Friday: a day of sadness and mourning, but also of JOY 

What a supreme paradox. We now call the day Jesus was crucified, Good.

Many believe this name simply evolved—as language does. They point to the earlier designation, "God's Friday," as its root. (This seems a reasonable conjecture, given that "goodbye" evolved from "God be with you.")

Whatever its origin, the current name of this holy day offers a fitting lesson to those of us who assume (as is easy to do) that "good" must mean "happy." We find it hard to imagine a day marked by sadness as a good day.

Of course, the church has always understood that the day commemorated on Good Friday was anything but happy. Sadness, mourning, fasting, and prayer have been its focus since the early centuries of the church. A fourth-century church manual, the Apostolic Constitutions, called Good Friday a "day of mourning, not a day of festive Joy." Ambrose, the fourth-century archbishop who befriended the notorious sinner Augustine of Hippo before his conversion, called it the "day of bitterness on which we fast."

Many Christians have historically kept their churches unlit or draped in dark cloths. Processions of penitents have walked in black robes or carried black-robed statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. And worshippers have walked the "Stations of the Cross," praying and singing their way past 14 images representing Jesus' steps along the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha.

Yet, despite—indeed because of—its sadness, Good Friday is truly good. Its sorrow is a godly sorrow. It is like the sadness of the Corinthians who wept over the sharp letter from their dear teacher, Paul, convicted of the sin in their midst. Hearing of their distress, Paul said, "My joy was greater than ever." Why? Because such godly sorrow "brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret" (2 Cor. 7:10).

I like to think the linguistic accident that made "God's Friday" into "Good Friday" was no accident at all. It was God's own doing—a sharp, prophetic jab at a time and a culture obsessed by happiness. In the midst of consumerism's Western playground, Good Friday calls to a jarring halt the sacred "pursuit of happiness." The cross reveals this pursuit for what it is: a secondary thing.

This commemoration of Christ's death reminds us of the human sin that caused this death. And we see again that salvation comes only through godly sorrow—both God's and, in repentance, ours. To pursue happiness, we must first experience sorrow. He who goes forth sowing tears returns in joy.

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Palm Sunday: Focus on the meaning of Palm Sunday and not on just the Palm

Palm  Sunday, the beginning of Holy week for Christians

Palm Sunday is a moveable Christian feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, where he was welcomed by a crowd waving palm branches.

In the Philippines, young coconut leaves are woven into decorative shapes to mimic the palm and olive fronds used in the Bible.

Some Filipino Catholics take home the palm fronds after the Palm Sunday Mass, in the belief that placing these on doors and windows can ward off evil spirits and lightning.

But that is not what Palm Sunday based on Biblical scripture represents for Christians.

Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter that begins the Holy Week. It is the day that Christians remember and celebrate the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem as Savior and King. As Jesus rode a donkey into the town of Jerusalem a large crowd gathered and laid palm branches and their cloaks across the road, giving Jesus royal treatment. 

The hundreds of people shouted "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 

On the heels of Palm Sunday, as Christians begin the Holy Week, may we constantly are reminded of its significance and value for our lives today. That very important day in history, when Jesus began His journey towards the cross, where he died for all of us, so that all could live .

A group of young school children in first grade, somewhere in a small rural town were told to write an essay after they were read the famous classic about the "Ants and the Grasshopper" which tells the story of the carefree life of a grasshopper compared to those of the always industrious ants . 

Where the Grasshopper has fun the whole summer, without collecting and storing any food for the winter, while the industrious ants collected food for the winter. Eventually, of course, that the ants make it through the winter and the grasshopper freezes to death. 

Anyway as the teacher of those first graders starts to receive the essays  of her pupils and reads them,  she finds that most of her pupils show real compassion for the cricket, many suggesting that some of the ants could give the cricket at least part of their food, so the cricket could probably survive and live through the winter.

One child's essay, however, stood out among all of the essays.  It was from a six year old girl who had been going to church regularly with her Mom, she suggested in her essay, that like Jesus, one ant could give all his collected food supplies to the cricket and die for him instead, so that the Cricket and all the other ants could lve. 

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