On the first Good Friday, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ endured tremendous torture and pain out of love for sinful human creatures. He was humiliated, punched, chained, taunted, and scourged until His Body was bleeding all over. As if this was not enough, He was crowned with thorns, humiliated further, forced to carry a heavy cross on His way to Calvary while being taunted by soldiers and bystanders, and finally crucified. He was mocked by people, abandoned by most of His apostles and disciples, and even mocked by one of the men crucified along with them. This was a totally innocent Man completely without any sin.

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus saw all the sins mankind would ever commit. He was going to suffer for these sins so that we would have the opportunity (but not the guarantee) of eternal life in Heaven. Because of His suffering, we have the ability to go to Confession and ask forgiveness for our sins. The gates of Heaven were closed prior to Jesus' death and resurrection. Anyone who died before that time, no matter how good they were, was not able to enter Heaven until Jesus died. Living in New Testament times, if we die in the State of Grace (having no unabsolved mortal sin on our souls), we will not spend eternity in hell.

When we sin, we must remember that before His betrayal, Jesus saw our sin. He suffered greatly because of our sins. We must keep this in mind. We have free will. We have the CHOICE to avoid committing a sin. But when we do sin, we are crucifying our Lord. Historically, this happened long ago. But he endured this terrible pain because of each of the sins we have committed or will commit in the future.

Nobody is guaranteed another day. We must take every opportunity we can to turn toward God. We must continue to do this each day for the rest of our lives.