Good Friday 2022

It's Good Friday and we are coming back from a quick trip to Uruguay. We left Thursday early in the morning, went all the way to Rocha, spent the afternoon and evening. Went back to Montevideo, and drove back to Buenos Aires today. It was short but sweet. This scripture came to mind as I ponder on Good Friday or "Viernes Santo. " Today is also my son-in-law's birthday who lives in Idaho. We called him to wish him a happy birthday.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

From the KSL newsroom: "For the first time is in more than three decades, members of Islam, Christians and Judaism will mark a Holy Season in April. Three religions leaders in Utah hope the faithful will make this a time of unity."

My favorite talk about this day: "No matter how dark our Friday, Sunday will come." Joseph B. Wirthlin

Today, Christians around the world solemnly remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the willing sacrifice of His life for ours. We know that Christ’s suffering on the cross is an essential component of His Atonement and President Gordon B. Hinckley taught “we cannot forget [the cross]. We must never forget it, for here our Savior, our Redeemer, the Son of God, gave himself a vicarious sacrifice for each of us.”

And yet, though Latter-day Saints have deep doctrinal beliefs about what took place on Golgotha’s hill, we have a complex history with the cross as a symbol. On this Good Friday, take a closer look at the history of the cross in Latter-day Saint symbolism.

Early Christan Symbols

For the earliest Christians, the cross represented gruesome torture and exquisite death. While we are far removed from the depravity of crucifixion today, death by crucifixion was common for slaves and the lower classes. Thus, the cross was not a popular Christian symbol in the first few centuries following Christ’s death. This isn’t to say the cross wasn’t associated with early Christians or used in iconography; it simply wasn’t venerated on the same scale in later years and was included in a wide array of symbols, including the ichthus, the dove, and the good shepherd.

In his book, The Cross Before Constantine, Bruce W. Longenecker helps us understand the meteoric rise of the cross as a symbol after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and legalized the faith.

It all comes to finding your way to always remembering him, for some is the cross and for others is something else but the point is to make a commitment to always remember Him. 

Con amor,

Vero