Good Friday

This is Good Friday. It’s the day Christians observe, knowing Jesus died on the cross on this day. Most Christians will tell you Jesus died because of my sin, your sin, our sin. We were that bad. We are that bad. The world is that bad, that God chose to send His Son, knowing He’d be treated this badly — and His death on a cross would be required in order to “save us.”

What the hell does all this mean? How is this attractive to anyone? And what does this have to say to our own suffering, our own anger and disaffection for God? Doesn’t it just deepen it?!

Not if we look at it as Christ intended. Not if we look at it as I did, as I was led to look at it, from the time I was a little girl. Here was a Being who was subject to the same horrors as was I, who somehow chose to be like me in doing so, and who blew away all the forces that put Him there just three days later. And, somehow, someway, I knew — and I experienced — the power released at that moment of His death and resurrection was and is made available to me then, now, and forever. The power released at that moment is made available to each of us, both in the moments of our suffering and right now.

But, my suffering went on for another decade after I experienced this! This realization didn’t stop the suffering! No, this is true, but the knowledge, the experience pierced through the impact of that suffering and took away its ability to hurt my mind, my spirit, my soul. When we look for and find the Christ — the force, the flow of the Spirit of God — we become, well, like Him, victorious, above, transcendent, even as suffering remains.

Celtic theology speaks of the thin places. This knowledge is such a thin place. It is something we must search for with our whole beings, and once found, it is something so good, so attractive, we will not stop searching, thirsting, learning how to remain in the presence of.

Reflection

Study deeply the part of you that survived suffering, the part of you that found a way to grow despite the deprivation. See the presence of Another.

Prayer

Jesus Christ, I have such anger at how You have been portrayed to me. It kept me stuck in my suffering. You have no intention of leaving any of us in our suffering. You offer yourself as the way to rise. Help me to see this, to follow this, to find You. Amen.