#12159 Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross? The Love and Logic of Good Friday - null

Catholic Answers Live

Catholic Answers

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

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Why did Jesus have to suffer and die on the cross? On this Good Friday episode of Catholic Answers Live, Cy Kellett speaks with Joe Heschmeyer, author of The Early Church Was the Catholic Church, to unpack the meaning behind Christ’s crucifixion.

Joe explains how the cross is not divine punishment but the ultimate act of love—God offering Himself for our salvation. Drawing from Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, this episode explores:

Why there’s no Mass on Good Friday
The meaning of Christ’s sacrifice
How the cross heals our relationship with God
The spiritual power of praying before the crucifix
Why Good Friday is both history’s darkest and brightest day

Transcript

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0:00.0	Remy and Echera
0:10.0	Donaiiore, Hello, and welcome to Catholic Answers Live, special conversation today for Good Friday,
0:36.6	and we have our good friend Joe Heschmeier here
0:38.5	with us, Joe, the author of The Early Church was the Catholic Church. I'll tell you what,
0:42.7	Joe, welcome. It only takes about 30 seconds of chant for your entire kind of, I don't know,
0:49.3	spirit to change. That's very peaceful. Yeah, it really is a good way of setting the tone.
0:53.7	We should bring that back a little bit. We should have a little more peaceful. Yeah, it really is a good way of setting the tone. We should bring that back a little bit.
0:56.1	We should have a little more chant.
0:58.5	Yeah, absolutely.
0:59.3	I think there's a profound liturgical point that you're making there,
1:03.8	whether you intend to be or not, that the effect music has on the soul is something that's often underrated.
1:10.6	I think this is something that's so remarkable.
1:12.7	The church fathers, when they talk about this,
1:15.1	talk about how often what people remember after Mass isn't the homily, it's the music.
1:21.4	And if you think about it this way, think back to your childhood.
1:24.4	How many of the homilies can you remember versus how many of the songs can you remember? Oh, yeah. And I'm willing to bet it's a lot more of the songs.
1:32.1	And so this is a great tragedy. You often have these excellent priests who will spend a lot of time
1:37.7	preparing these amazing homilies and no one remembers. And then totally leaving the direction of the music up to committee or up to, yeah,
1:46.9	someone who does not have the proper formation to execute that beautifully.
1:52.4	Yeah.
1:53.0	And the result is, I think, a missed opportunity.
1:56.2	Yeah, a missed opportunity because the Christian faith is not like anything else. And the practice of
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