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GIVE YOURSELF WHOLLY TO THE FLOURISHING OF LIFE.

Good Friday is a significant day since we see the convergence of great suffering and God’s forgiveness on that day. Psalm 85:10 sings of a day when ‘righteousness and peace will kiss each other.’ The cross of Jesus is where that occurred, where God’s justice, his righteousness, coincided with his mercy.

It reminds us that we veer between darkness and light. She says that the abstraction ‘suffering’ is translated into tangible, visible words and gestures in the liturgy for the day. It also links our individual stories and struggles concretely and not just verbally to the overarching story of Christ’s redemptive suffering. In the Catholic tradition, the Good Friday service begins with a silent procession and the celebrants prostrating themselves before the altar. What does this say? It states starkly that we have killed the divine spark in each other through a callous word, a harsh condemnation and a heavy hand.

Psalm 22:9 resounds with the taunting line: “You relied on the LORD, let him deliver you, if he loves you, let him rescue you.” Jesus, who began praying the Psalm from the cross, must have suffered the ultimate abandonment: doubt that his Father; who had always been a source of joy and strength, loved him. Fully divine, but also fully human, he was not play-acting but descended to the depths of human exile on the cross.

This is the feeling of abandonment. It is in the darkness, when there is nothing left in us, that can please or comfort our minds, when we seem to have failed, been destroyed and devoured; it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us to identify, is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. We are made strong.

It is this theme of self and selfishness that resonates in what the Christian martyr, said: That to each one of us, Christ seems to be saying – “If you want your life and mission to be fruitful, like mine, do as I do. Be converted into a seed that lets itself be buried. Let yourself be killed. Don’t be afraid. Those who shun suffering will remain alone. No one is more alone than the selfish. But, if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for you, you will reap a great harvest.”

Love is the message of Good Friday as we stand at the foot of the cross. Love does not allow people to flee or shield themselves from troubles. Genuine lovers move deeply into the life-and-death dramas of this world, like a plant that sinks roots deep into fertile soil, and there give themselves wholly to the flourishing of life.

To withhold oneself from love is to withhold oneself from participating in a compete life. Love is the outbound movement that trains people to heal injustice and kindly embrace the world.

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