Standing at the Foot of the Cross | Good Friday 2026

On this solemn Good Friday 2026, we pause the noise and stand at the foot of the cross with Jesus—raw, unfiltered, and real. No rushing to Easter. No sanitizing the blood, the nails, or the agony.

In this powerful Catholic reflection for restless hearts, Nicole Olea takes us to Golgotha: the scourging, crown of thorns, the heavy beam, the nails piercing wrists and feet, the labored breathing, and the cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” We explore why the Church still calls this darkest day “Good”—because God Himself came in the flesh to be crushed for our sins so we could be healed.

You’ll hear:

• The brutal physical reality of the crucifixion and how it fulfills the Passover Lamb (unbroken bones, blood on wood)
• Jesus’ seven last words as gifts of forgiveness, promise, motherhood, and victory (“It is finished”)
• The deep connection between the cross and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist—the same Jesus is truly, substantially present in every tabernacle and at every Mass (CCC 1374)
• A moving story from Cardinal McElroy about a Chinese bishop who endured 23 years in prison and missed the Eucharist most
• How our everyday sins and sufferings add weight to the cross—and how uniting them to Christ’s transforms everything

Drawing from Scripture, the Catechism, and saints like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Ávila, John Paul II, Fulton Sheen, and more, this episode reminds us: the cross isn’t comfortable. It’s where real sacrificial love is measured. It’s where death is defeated and mercy wins.

If your world feels heavy—wars, family stress, anxiety, scrolling emptiness, or personal crosses—this is your invitation. Don’t fast-forward past Good Friday. Stay. Surrender. Offer whatever you’re carrying right now to Him.

Because without a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter.

Restless hearts, you are welcome here.
You belong to the Man who was marked for you.

Make the Sign of the Cross slowly today. He did all of this for you.

If this episode stirred something in your faith, share it with someone who needs hope. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen—it helps this ministry reach more restless hearts called to be saints. Follow Rebel Saints for honest Catholic reflections on growing in faith.

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Transcript

Rebel Saints - Good Friday 2026

00:00:13 Nicole Olea: Hello Restless hearts and to the Rebel Saints podcast. This is a Catholic podcast for anyone who is looking to grow spiritually in their faith. Today, I'm not here to hype you up. Sorry. I actually want to take you somewhere. Maybe we try to avoid.

00:00:35 Nicole Olea: And that's to stand at the foot of the cross with Jesus. I mean, that kind of literally. Not metaphorically. Not as some nice idea or a piece of jewelry you wear around your neck. So I want you to picture it with me. We're just outside of Jerusalem, in Golgotha. The sky has gone pitch black in the middle of the day. The air is thick with dust. There's blood and an ugly mockery happening. You can hear the labored breathing, the shouting, the sound of nails being driven in. And right in the center is Jesus. He's bleeding, he's exposed, he's been completely humiliated. And almost everyone he knows has run away. And so that's why we're staying today. Because if we're serious about following Christ today, not just admiring him from a distance, not quoting him when it's convenient, we can't skip this part. We can't sanitize it. We can't fast forward straight to Easter. Today is Good Friday. And if you're sitting there feeling maybe like the whole world is literally on fire, while we're supposed to stand silent at the foot of the cross, you're not alone. We've got wars that, you know, seem like they're not going to end anytime soon. Families cracking under screens and constant stress. Politics that feel like a nonstop cage match. And then let's just talk about the endless scrolling, that leaves us more anxious and feeling empty than ever before. Our faith gets called outdated, bigoted, or straight up irrelevant; meanwhile, our church, the Catholic Church, does something ancient. It's called statio. And this is a deliberate pause. It's a station of silence. So today, across the world, all of our altars have been stripped bare in the churches. Tabernacles are empty and no Mass will be said. And that's because we're watching the Son of God get crucified for the sins of the world, including every single bit of the mess we're all drowning in right now. So why on earth does the church still call this day good? Because, I mean, it's not right? Like it doesn't feel anything akin to being good. It's because on this day, God didn't send someone else to do the dirty work. He came himself fully God and fully man, and he let himself be crushed so we could be healed. Let's look at this honestly--- no filters-- at what that actually meant for his body, because our faith is not some abstract idea. The Word became flesh and that flesh was torn apart.

00:04:19 Nicole Olea: After he was condemned, the Romans scorched him with a flag rum. A whip made of leather strands embedded with pieces of bone and metal. It didn't just leave bruises, it shredded skin, muscle, even tissue. Isaiah wasn't being poetic when he said. "By his wounds we are healed." And then to mock the King of Kings, they pressed a crown of thorns into his scalp, which would have caused heavy bleeding. And after all that blood loss and shock, he's forced to carry the heavy beam of the cross. He falls. He gets back up. Nails are then driven through his wrists, hitting the median nerve, which would have sent a searing, agonizing pain up his arms, and through his feet. And every time he took a breath that would have been pure torture, because he would have had to push up just to inhale, only to collapse back down when he exhaled. This would have happened over and over again for hours. And of course, you know, dehydration would have set in and he would have experienced an extreme thirst. And so when he said, "I thirst," he was really thirsty, because he was human. But yet even in death, the soldier's spear pierces his side, and blood and water flow out. But before nails ever touched him, there was the garden. Gethsemane, sweat falling like drops of blood. Jesus wasn't calm or detached here. He was in real agony under the weight of every single sin. Yours, mine. Every hidden thing we've ever done. And what does he say? "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." That's surrender right there. It's where love becomes real. True, sacrificial love. Saint Augustine said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." This decision was personal. It was for you. And when we think about the trial where Pilate drags him out and says, behold "The Man." Pilate thought he was showing weakness, instead, he was showing us the perfect man, the new Adam, the one who took on every bit of our humanity, the exhaustion, the betrayal, the loneliness,

00:07:18 Nicole Olea: even the cry of "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And he offered it all back to the father in perfect love. Jesus on the cross. And every single word is a gift. "Father, forgive them." To day you will be with me in Paradise." "Woman. Behold your son." Giving us Mary as our mother. And finally, "It is finished." Not, 'I am finished.' The debt was paid in full. Redemption accomplished. This is real sacrifice. Christ is both the priest and the victim, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Pope Benedict the sixteenth once dropped this line that still hits. Okay. He said on Good Friday, God is dead and we have killed him. It's the truth, right? It forces us to face something real. Our little sins, aren't so little. The gossip we spread, the pride that sneaks in. The apathy we feel toward the person sleeping on the street. Those things have a body count. They add to the weight on that cross that Jesus continues to carry. So, when Jesus is hanging there, he's not just a victim of a corrupt Roman system or a religious power struggle. As Saint John Paul the Second kept reminding us in Salvifici Doloris, he's taking on the totality of human suffering. Every betrayal you ever felt, every anxious thought about the future, every ache in your body, or your heart, it's all there on the cross with him. Jesus didn't come to explain our suffering away, or give us a neat answer. He came to step into it with us, to inhabit it with us. So yesterday, at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew Apostle in DC, I was covering the mass for the Lord's Supper, and Cardinal Robert McElroy, shared the story of Archbishop Dominic Tang. He was a Chinese Jesuit bishop, who spent twenty three years in prison under the Communists in China. He was starved, beaten, walked on, put in complete isolation, and when he was finally freed and someone asked him what hurt the most during all those years, he didn't point to the torture or the loneliness. He simply said, not having the Eucharist. He would weep because he missed the Real Presence of Christ so badly. The Presence, he had admitted to having taken for granted. So, you know, I'm sitting there taking notes. And then Cardinal McElroy, looks out at everyone and said something that I felt like landed right in my chest. Right. And so this is why I'm sharing it with

00:10:21 Nicole Olea: you. And he said, "We often think, I wish I could have seen Christ in his earthly life, but Christ is truly present, equally present here when we celebrate the Eucharist, when we receive him, when we pray before him, it is that gift of physical and spiritual presence, that is right here with us." Man, that one hit me. I don't know about you, but I sometimes catch myself kind of doing that. You know, thinking about what would have been like to walk with Jesus along the Sea of Galilee, or sit at his feet like Mary had. Um, you know, or laughing with him, or asking him all of these restless heart questions to his face. And I think, That's where, that's where, the Church kind of takes that fantasy and hits it right out of the park, with the Truth. And it's that he is here right now, not less than when he walked the earth. Truly, really, substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament, body, blood, soul, Divinity. The same Jesus who calmed the storm, raised Lazarus and washed the feet of the guy who would betray him, is waiting for you, in the tabernacle and given to you at every Mass. That is the heart of our Catholic faith. It's not just symbolism. It's not a nice memorial service. It is the real and true presence. So the same presence that Archbishop Tang, wept for in his prison cell. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, spells it out very clearly and plainly. It says in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole Christ, is truly, really, and substantially contained. And you can look that up on CCC thirteen seventy four. Let's be straight with each other. Being a Catholic, it's not good vibes only, right? Our faith deals in blood, sweat and wood. Yeah. Let me pause for a second here. And I want you to think about this because back when I was a youth minister, this was one of the moments, every single time, where I'd say it out loud and like, I could literally see it land. Eyes would, you know, get wide. Kids would sit up a little bit straighter, and have that like, wait, what? look spread across their faces. And honestly, even some of my adult volunteers would have the exact same reaction because they'd never heard it put together this way before. So I feel like I have to share it here too, just in case you're listening, and no one has ever connected these dots for Because trust me, once you see it, you can't unsee it.

00:13:23 Nicole Olea: So let's go back, to the night in the Old Testament, on the night of Passover, when the Israelites marked their doors with the blood of a spotless lamb, trusting that death would pass over them. And centuries later, on another Passover, on that same Good Friday, that same pattern reaches its fulfillment as Jesus Christ hangs on the wood of the cross. The Lamb had to be without blemish, its bones unbroken, its blood poured out for salvation. And in a detail that is anything but accidental, right? Jesus's legs are not broken, because he is that perfect lamb. So like when the soldier comes or whatever and they pierce his side, they, they came to like they broke the other guy's legs, right? But they didn't break his, because he was already, he was already dead. He was already perfect. Okay, so he is that perfect lamb. The blood that was once brushed onto wooden doorposts now flows onto the wood of the cross. It no longer marks a single household for one night, but it opens the door to eternal life for the world. What was once a sign becomes a person. What was once a ritual becomes a reality. And on Good Friday, we're not just remembering a sacrifice. We are standing beneath the cross. Realizing that the God who once saved his people through the blood of a lamb, has now given himself, as the Lamb so that death does not get the final word. I know, mind blown. Saint Thomas Aquinas said in the Summa Theologiae that the passion of Christ was the most suitable way for our redemption. Not because God enjoys pain, but because real love is measured by what it's willing to endure. And we live in a world that tries hard to sanitize everything, right? We filter our faces. We've got mute buttons for anyone who disagrees with us, endless distractions so we don't have to feel the weight of our own mortality. But here's the truth. We are all, all of us. Each one of us, born to die. Our bodies won't last forever, but the divine part of us, our soul will. And that is exactly why we have to stand at that foot of the cross. We want control. We want comfort. We want everything to be clear and easy. The cross offers us surrender instead. To follow Jesus, we have to unite our hearts and our souls. That part of us that will never die to his. Saint Teresa of Avila reminds us, now you know that Christ has no body but yours. That's our call, to be saints, not perfect ones, because he was perfect, but just ones who keep trying, who keep showing up, who keep choosing. Heaven. And Saint Rose of Lima said apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven. And then Venerable Fulton Sheen put it this way unless there is a good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter. So if you're twenty, twenty six. And. Man. Gosh, it's only April already. Feels like it's been one long Good Friday... Maybe you've got a kid drifting from the faith. Money's tighter than ever. I mean, we just had to replace a water heater in a well pump, so I am there with you. Or maybe you feel like you're doing all the right things, but nothing seems to get better. Hear this. You are in the right place. If you feel like the world is unfair. Congratulations. You're standing at the foot of the cross. Jesus didn't die for humanity in some vague, abstract way. He died for you. For the nights you scroll, instead of pray for the time anger wins, for the fears about your kids in this crazy world that leads you maybe to lash out at them, or to want to protect them more than than they need to be protected. For every single time we choose Barabbas over the real King who reigns On Good Friday, we're staring at the most unjust, most unfair event history.

00:17:46 Nicole Olea: And that is when the only completely innocent person who has ever lived, was executed by the state. But here's what makes the Catholic faith the most beautiful thing. We don't seek revenge for that. We don't seek to avenge our God. Because Jesus went all the way on the cross, we get to do life differently. We can choose to align ourselves with him. We can choose to turn our hearts to Christ, and then we don't have to play the cancel game. We don't have to get stuck in a constant hate mode. We're invited to love the way he did. Saint Jose Maria Escriva nailed it when he said to follow Christ. That is the secret. We have to get so close to him that we basically live with him like the first twelve did. Until we start looking like him. And so like today, you know, we'll, we'll attach ourselves to all kinds of things, right? Except the cross. We'll tie our identity to our favorite brands, a political side, our sexual orientation, and friends, you are not your sexual orientation. You are so much more than that. So you know the crew of the people online that are your echo chambers. You know all of the things that make us feel good for a minute until our life actually falls apart. And then those things, they disappear, right? They fall fast, And then all that's left is that guy that's hanging on the tree that can actually hold you together. And do you know why he's different? Because when everyone was coming at him, he didn't hit back. He took the hit. He broke the whole eye for an eye revenge cycle by offering himself instead. That's not weak. That's the most punk rock -- radical power move in human history. Straight up unstoppable love. And you know, here's the part that brings it to us now living today. You don't have to do this alone. You can't do it alone, right? The first twelve didn't try to follow Jesus by themselves. They stuck together. You had fishermen, doubters, hotheads, all of them learning how to love like him side by side. So, friends, find your people. Link up with friends who are actually trying to become saints. Holy guys and girls who want to chase Jesus for real. The friend who will call you out when you're spiraling and remind you to pray instead of doomscroll. The couple at church, who's fighting for their marriage the same way you're fighting for yours. The youth group crew. The young adult Bible study. That one priest or sister who keeps showing up, even when it's hard. When your circle is made of people running toward the cross with you Something crazy happens. You stop just admiring Jesus from a distance. You start looking more like him. You start loving more like him.

00:20:52 Nicole Olea: And that's how regular, chaotic lives, like yours and mine, turn into something beautiful and eternal. And so we've got to remember that because when Jesus was on the cross, almost everyone bailed. But there were a few who stayed, right. Saint John, the women, and Jesus's mother, Mary, they couldn't stop what was happening. They couldn't fix it. So their presence, they stayed with him. They accompanied him. And that's actually one of the most underrated moves in following Jesus. You just got to show up and keep staying, even when it's uncomfortable, even when you don't know the answers. I mean, this is where this podcast exists so I can find answers to these questions. Love. doesn't always fix the situation. But the love of Christ is the thing that will heal you. You just have to trust in him and trust in his time. Pope Francis once said that on the cross, Jesus embraced every kind of suffering. The nakedness, the hunger, the loneliness, the pain and even death for every single person in every time. That includes us right here, right now. And that includes your restless heart, that you know wonders, what's the point of it all..? And here's the Hope, that I hope changes everything for you if you are, one of those people who are struggling with their faith. The cross didn't lose. I know Jesus died and it looks like he lost. But when Jesus said it is finished, he meant it. The debt was paid. Death was defeated. The devil was conquered. So what do we actually do today? You beautiful, restless hearts. What are we doing today? Offer whatever cross you're carrying right now. The small everyday grind or the really heavy one. Even the moments when you doubt if any of this is real, or if it's all just a bunch of BS. Unite it to his. Every time you do that, you're telling the darkness, love is stronger than death. Mercy is bigger than our mess. And Sunday is coming. Whether the world believes it or not. Because the world back then thought it had won. On Friday, when those powerful people scoffed, they all went home thinking, well, that problem Jesus is finally solved and they were wrong. So don't push past this day. Don't try to clean it up or make it safe and comfortable. The cross is exactly where your real life begins, so stay at the cross with me today. Right now, wherever you are, go ahead and make the sign of the cross slowly. You belong to the man who was marked for you. He did all of this for you. He loves you that much. Good Friday isn't the end of the story. It is the darkest hour before the dawn. Yes. But nothing can stop the sunrise. All right, friends, that's all I've got for this, uh, Good Friday episode. Just know that I am praying for you. I love you, and if this hit your restless heart, share this episode with someone else. You never know who needs it. And please leave a review.

00:24:56 Nicole Olea: Scroll past all the way down. If you're on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and just hit that follow button and leave a review, because that's really the only way that I can help get this message and this ministry out to other people. I'll be back with an Easter, episode and then, following that maybe some hot takes, but until then, I'm Nicole and this is Rebel Saints. It's a podcast for restless hearts who are called to be saints. Restless hearts. You are welcome here.