Christians crowd in

The pews, aisles and doorways at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on Rhode Island Avenue NW were packed yesterday with the devout who came to Good Friday worship services celebrated by Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop of Washington.

Cardinal McCarrick led the afternoon worship service for the solemn Christian observance, which remembers the Crucifixion of Jesus as an act of atonement for the sins of the world.

“Christ died for us and made our salvation possible, so that’s why you come [to church],” Matthew Brady, 66, said. He and his wife, Carol, 64, were visiting from Wausau, Wis., where they are accustomed to smaller congregations.

“We were in back, so we couldn’t see very well,” Mrs. Brady said.

After filling the 1,200- seats in the pews, another 200 visitors crowded into doorways and aisles, archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said.

Midway through the service, three deacons — ordained clergy who hold less authority than a priest, yet are allowed to preach the Gospel — read the account of the trial and Crucifixion of Jesus from the Bible.

Deacons Leon Bechet, Timothy Enright and Bart Merella read texts from the Gospel of John about how Jesus was scourged, tested by the authorities, and finally hung on a cross.

“We have just heard a love story,” Cardinal McCarrick said in his homily immediately after the Scripture reading. “It was a story of the incredible, mysterious love that God has for us.”

Cardinal McCarrick went on to talk about the different kinds of love God wants us to have: love for ourselves, love for neighbors and love for Him.

“How do you show this love of God? By trusting in Him,” he said.

“Love is when you take your life and put it in someone else’s keeping. That’s what Jesus said to the Father, and if we love God, that’s what we must say to the Father.”

In a Veneration of the Cross rite, a sculpture of Jesus hanging on the cross was carried throughout the church and worshippers bowed their heads as the image passed by out of respect for the sacrifice Jesus made.

“To me it means gratefulness,”said Jackie Donohue, 21, a George Washington University senior. “Jesus hung up there for all of our sins, and each year He dies again for all of our sins.”

Miss Donahue said she looks forward to the Good Friday service.

“Part of it’s tradition since I’ve been going since I was a little kid, and part of it’s just my own desire to go,” she said.

“I love the service today, it’s very different from all of the services the church has throughout the year.”

St. Matthews was established in 1840 at 15th and H streets NW. The present church structure at 1725 Rhode Island Ave. NW was completed in 1895. It was designated as a cathedral in 1939 after the Archdiocese of Washington was established by the Roman Catholic Church.