PASSIONTIDE MARCH 22, 2026

Our As we enter church today, a sombre scene awaits us. The crucifixes and all of the statues and images are shrouded in violet cloth. This will be the case until Holy Saturday evening at the Easter Vigil. However, all the crosses will be uncovered on Good Friday. The origin of this practice is very ancient. In the Church’s early days, the main cross was often made of gold or another precious metal and decorated with enamels or jewels, but it lacked the figure of the crucified Christ. Prior to the solemn ceremonies of Holy Week, this cross was covered with dark cloth as a reminder that shortly the Bridegroom was to be taken away and His bride, the Church, dressed herself in mourning array. On Good Friday, however, the cross would be solemnly unveiled and its brightness shone forth.

      The Cross is the weapon with which Our Lord did battle with the forces of evil, and the jewels upon it betokened His holy wounds. Therefore, the Cross is a victory trophy rather than a symbol of suffering and shame; after its unveiling, the faithful pressed forward to do homage to this instrument of salvation. As the years passed, this veiling of the cross was also extended to other images in church by way of association. We also remember that before Our Lord’s saving death, the souls of the just were excluded from heavenly glory and waited in expectation. So the unveiling of the images of the saints reminds us that the joys of Heaven were opened to humanity through the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

     In Christian art, we often see Our Lord pictured using His Cross as a plough to cleave the soil open. From these furrows stretch out the figures of Adam and Eve and, sometimes, other Old Testament characters. This is often called the “Harrowing of Hell”. Hell in this sense is not so much the abode of the damned. but ‘another place’, where the souls of the just awaited the call of the Redeemer. This is what we refer to when in the Apostles’ Creed we ac-claim that “He descended into Hell”. This was the action of Christ between His death and Resurrection. On Good Friday at the Solemn Liturgy of the Passion we see the Crucifix unveiled in three stages, and approaching It, we genuflect three times. This ritual is known as the “creeping to the Cross”. It is the wood of the Cross rather than the figure upon it that we kiss, as we are honouring the tool of our redemption—the glorious weapon which was the means of Our Lord’s triumph.         ~  Fr. Paul Dobson.