Today we celebrate Good Friday, although “celebrate” is perhaps a strange word to use to mark the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. Today is a day for us to stand beneath the cross and contemplate how much God is willing to do for us in the name of love.
The contemplation of Jesus’ passion we began at the beginning of Holy Week, we see through to the end today. St. Ignatius believed that it is important for us to see this through with Jesus to the end, to walk to Calvary with Jesus and be with Him at the moment of His death. This is something incredibly important for Ignatius: I do not leave until Jesus dies. Why?
The greatest question of our faith is: does Jesus really rise? Can God bring meaning and love out of death? Can the killing of the Word made flesh really make sense? Can love be stronger than hate? Does Jesus really rise from the place of suffering and death? Ignatius believes I cannot answer those questions without first experiencing the death. That I cannot leave Calvary until I let Jesus does, because only in seeing Jesus die can I see into the heart of God. (Karl Rahner once said: “at the core of God’s center is Calvary.”)
I must stand in the violence and pain and see life and hope and goodness in the midst of pain. I must be with Jesus in His experience on the cross. Not just His physical pain, but the pain of not being sure what will happen. Standing at the cross I see that Jesus felt fear that His Father had left him. I hear Jesus cry out: I can’t see you, where are you, why have you abandoned me. But I also hear Jesus say, I can’t see you, but into your hands I commend my spirit. And standing at the foot of the cross I come to know that God is there to catch me because I see Jesus jump into the embrace of a God He cannot see and feel. I cannot know this if I don’t go to Calvary. I can only know this if I stay at that cross and watch the scene in its entirety.
This is not an easy thing. Father Joseph Cassidy writes: “Staying with Jesus is not at all easy….In fact, the apostles remain prime examples of just how difficult it must have been and how demanding it still is to stay with Jesus through his Passion. Staying quietly with Jesus at the foot of the cross is an extraordinary labor of love which requires “great effort,” as Ignatius said.”
Being at the foot of the cross is not easy. But that is precisely where we are invited to be this day.
Creo en Dios! 