A student asked me the other day, "Why is Good Friday called 'Good' Friday?" Understanding the implication of her question,I think,
I answered,briefly,why in English we used the word 'good' for the day. "Good" simply means 'holy' such as
the "good book" and the "Holy Bible." But what is exactly so 'good' about this Friday?

There are a few peculiarities about the celebration of the day during mass.
For starters, the service is not an average mass as there is no consecration that takes place. No Gloria is said, nor Credo,neither is there a Dominus Vobiscum or a responsorial "et cum Spiritu Tuo." It is a stripped down mass in literal and figurative senses, without bells,
incense or candlelit altars.

The cross is there: obscured at first under purple cloth, until it is revealed entirely after three genuflections
and an accompanying response "Venite Adoremus."  The Latin I have used is more likely to be in the vernacular  in the 21st century, however the meaning ought to be translated the same: "Come,let us us adore(the cross)."

Adoration of the cross is preceded by a  series of prayers, the Solemn Intercessions, that traditionally are accompanied with kneeling between
each petition. Indeed, there is more kneeling in the Good Friday Liturgy than an average mass. I may add that the kneeling was absent in
the Hong Kong approved liturgical rubric I attended on this day in 2024. Perhaps that will change someday!

Otherwise, the liturgy of Good Friday has remained more or less untouched despite the revisions of 1955 and 1969 which first altered the celebration of Holy Saturday and then almost all liturgical celebrations by the 1970s. Yes, it is true that the mass is no longer mandated to be prayed in Latin (and Greek and Hebrew).
Yet, the Good Friday structure with first readings,intercessions,adoration of the cross and finally reception of Holy Communion with Consecration from a previous
mass(Maundy Thursday) still manages to be a conservative outlier on the modern liturgical calendar.

I realize the question still stands: What is good then about Good Friday? What is Holy?

In a normal mass,the Eucharist is the re-presenation of Calvary.
The sacrifice at Calvary is represented as in every mass,but in a unique way it is offered pre-sanctified on Good Friday. Traditionally,only the priest would receive
the Eucharist on this day. Now,since the liturgical changes of 1955, the faithful may receive the pre-sanctified host. The implications of this change are not small,but I will leave it at that for now.
It's a possibility that the faithful may choose for themselves not to receive on this day(like any mass except for Easter),yet,the practice of Eucharistic abstinence on Good Friday as too black vestments
and white candles signalling the service to be funerary have faded from the public's memory. Certainly I had no conception of these older practices before privately
researching them. Even so, the remaining traditional aspects of Good Friday service in the post-conciliar age are laudable.

Why is Good Friday Holy apart from it's unique liturgy? I implore the seeker to prayer and meditation on the cross; to the reading of the passion narratives of the
Evangelists; and the attendance of the annual gem in our liturgical calendar of the pre-sanctified mass.

To meditate on the cross is no easy task,
it is grueling I have found,heart-wrenching and grim. We know what lies next in the Triduum of Easter: the burial,the grave. Christ's descent into the Hell of the Patriarchs. Christ's Day of triumph on Sunday we are afforded with knowing. But on that blackest Friday, his friends,loved ones,disciples, his Mother,were kept in the dark,despite his
prophecies of the temple being raised on the third day. On the third day,yes,we shall rejoice.

This is a day of wearing black however,candlelight snuffed out as the sun's light was stolen away when Jesus of Nazareth gave up the ghost. We reflect on our own mortality: how soon? How shall we suffer? But no suffering can compare to our Lord's
on that Good day.