On Good Friday, we ponder what appeared to be the greatest crime in human history — the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The world seems like a dark place. On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on his trip to Mexico and Cuba, warned that when God is removed from society,  “the world becomes an inhospitable place for humans.” One could also add that the womb has become an inhospitable place for human beings. However!!

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).