When the church allowed meat on Fridays, the intent was not to end the call for penance. Friday penance outside of Lent can now have a more personal nature, drawing each of us closer to God.

A Homily for Good Friday, by Terrance Klein

“Look at the closet of your soul—how many useless things you have, how many stupid illusions,” the pope said. “Let us return to simplicity, to things that are true, that don’t need to be made-up.”

“Christ, in his abandonment, stirs us to seek him and to love him and those who are themselves abandoned. For in them we see not only people in need, but Jesus himself, abandoned.”

Pope Francis, recovering from bronchitis, delivered a forceful Palm Sunday homily asking us to remember the “many abandoned Christs” in our own time, or those who experience suffering and solitude.

We should focus on what today’s reading outlines as a uniter, that being a sanctuary under God.