Today as I said goodbye for the long weekend to my students I asked them what they planned for this weekend. Some plan to attend Easter services, but most see this as a break from school work and an opportunity to sleep in and hang out with friends. One told me that she's going to be at Keeneland on Good Friday for the horse races.
I explained to my classes that millions of Christians around the world spend this weekend at church services and totally fast on Good Friday, but it was as if I were speaking jibberish for most of them. We would rather think and do things that make us comfortable and allow us to flee from the Cross.
The horror, the ugliness, the brutality of the cross is enough to make us want to flee. Yet the love we feel keeps us close to the Suffering Servant, just as Mary, and the other women, and faithful John stayed close.
Look upon Him who they crucified and weep.
Related reading: Why is Good Friday Good?; The Scarlet Cord Woven Through the Bible; Reality is Cross Shaped; The Empty Tomb
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2 comments:
One of the most transformative moments our family ever experienced in Church was at the Unnailing Service on Great and Holy Friday. As our priest read the Gospel he wept, lost his composure, and stopped reading. This happened several times as his love for the Lord and his grief poured forth. Then, he chanted tenderly, "Joseph took his body and he laid it in the tomb," as he reverently wrapped His body in the linen shroud and placed it in the kouvoulion. My sons were preschoolers, but have never forgotten; every year they softly chant the same reverent hymn as the priest unnails the icon of Christ, and wraps His body in linen.
The services of Holy Week place us at the foot of the Cross, and strengthen our personal relationship with God.
So many people see this day as a day like any other. I view this day like I did when my parents passed away. I wondered how other people out in the world could go on like nothing had happen when I had just lost my Mother and Father. You feel like they should share the heartbreak you are feeling. I look at our world and all the people and wonder how so many can go about their daily routines and think nothing about what happened on this day.
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