It was the Romans, not the Jєωs, who mocked Our Lord with genuflections.

During which particular moment of Our Lord's passion? Didn't St. John say that the Gospels were *not* a full record of Our Lord's sayings and actions? What if there were some other event, perhaps part of Tradition rather than Scripture?

Were the Jєωs content to stay at home while Jesus was taken to Herod's Court and mocked there? Or did some of them tag along? When Jesus was condemned to death by the kangaroo court of the Sanhedrin, when they immediately began to strike him (Scripture says they mocked him and said "prophesy, who is it that struck thee?"), did some Jєωs perhaps throw in a few mock genuflections?

Or, during countless minutes along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary, did some Jєωs mock genuflect as the King passed by?

Too many unanswered questions.

Long story short, I'm taking the Church's word for it, that the Jєωs mocked Our Lord with genuflections on this day, and so we shouldn't genuflect during the prayer for them on Good Friday.

Kaz,
Suggest you continue to stay kneeling,
but when it's time to genuflect for those who mocked Our Lord with genuflections, just put do a facepalm  
The meaning will be the same as if you didn't genuflect.

Dom Gueranger, The Liturgical Year:

Here the deacon does not invite the faithful to kneel. The Church has no hesitation in offering up a prayer for the descendants of Jesus' executioners; but in doing so she refrains from genuflecting, because this mark of adoration was turned by the Jєωs into an insult against our Lord during the Passion. She prays for His scoffers; but she shrinks from repeating the act wherewith they scoffed at Him.

It stands to reason. The Gospels mention in several places that the Jєωs mocked Our Lord. How does one mock someone who claims to be Christ and King of the Jєωs?

Furthermore, the Church teaches us through Her Liturgy: Lex orandi legem credendi statuit.

Thanks for all the answers everyone, it really broadened my vision. One last thing, is the 1962 missal 'bad'? I'm not too familiar with anything older or why some people don't like it.

History, and tradition, are always a little muddier than one likes, with our propensity to modern, scientific "cleanliness". And it should be that way. Tradition is broader than our way of thinking, and she, like the Church, offer us balance.

The explanation for the omission of the genuflection as a symbol of the mockery from the Jєωs dates back to the great Frankish liturgical commentator Amalarius of Metz (d. 850), in De Ecclesiasticis officiis IV.1.13. It is repeated throughout the High Middle Ages by many of the great liturgical commentators of that period: Sicardo of Cremona (Mitrales, VI), Jean d'Avranches (in Liber de Officiis Eccl.), Jean Beleth (Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 98), etc. I believe Durandus also makes the same commentary although I don't have a citation on hand.

Amalarius: Per omnes orationes genuflexionem facimus, ut per hunc habitum corporis, mentis humilitatem ostendamus excepto quando oramus pro perfidis Judaeis. Illi enim genu flectebant, opus bonum male operabantur, quia illudendo hoc faciebant. Nos ad demonstrandum quod fugere debeamus opera quae simulando fiunt, vitamus genuflexionem in oratione pro Judaeis.

Sicardus: Pro Judaeis vero non flectimus genua, ut vitemus illorum illusionem, quoniam irrisorie sua Deo flectebant.

That being said, each of these commentators note what SeanJohnson noted, that the Gospels plainly say it was the Romans who mocked Our Lord with genuflections: Matt. 27:29, Mark 15:18, John 19:3. They attempt to make several roundabout explanations for why the rubric makes sense when applied to the Jєωs, and sometimes leave the impression that they are not fully convinced of their own commentary!

If one looks at the earliest manuscripts for the Roman Rite, in fact we discover that the omission was not original. The prayer for the Jєωs was treated just as all the other solemn prayers The omission of the genuflexion was introduced in the 9th century, from Frankish influence, although in some places the ancient Roman practice persisted even through the 12th century. There is no consensus on why the omission for the genuflection (as well as Oremus and Flectamus) were introduced.

Given that the omission was a later introduction and that it was the Roman soldiers who mocked Our Lord in this way, and since most people here seem fine with the vandalism of changing the liturgy to make it more palatable for our modern tastes, so long as it doesn't pose a "danger to the Faith," it would make sense to move the omission from the prayer for the Jєωs to the prayer for the pagans instead!


So, when do I get my $100?