Reflection for Good Friday 2010
2 April 2010

by Anne Shepard, OSB

During the Triduum, we have the luxury of three days of silent reflection on the meaning of Eucharist, the cross, emptiness in our lives as we anticipate the Resurrection. We call this second day of the Triduum, Good, because this Friday gives meaning to the purpose of suffering and the consequence we risk when we stand up for injustice, for the poor, for the innocent, for the rights of the voiceless.

In his compelling book on Jesus and Nonviolence, Walter Wink suggests that
“The cross was not just Jesus’ identification with the victims of oppression; it was also his way of dealing with these evils. It was not because he was a failed insurrectionist that Jesus died as he did, but because he preferred to suffer injustice and violence rather than be their cause...

“The cross means that death is not the greatest evil one can suffer. It means I am free to act faithfully without undo regard for the outcome. God can bring out of voluntarily assumed suffering the precious seeds of a new reality.” (P.87)

Jesus chose to confront the craziness and the injustices of his day, and the authorities did not like it. The civic authorities did not like it. The religious authorities did not like it. As a matter of fact they punished him for it. Jesus fed the hungry, forgave the sinners, (women more dramatically than men), overturned the dishonest and greedy bankers, challenged the rich, embraced the diseased. And it cost him. He could not stop doing for others, had no concern for the legality of the days of the week he was performing the miracles, and it cost him. He chose suffering and death rather than be the cause of suffering and death. That choice was free, was daily and was meant for us to imitate.

In her search for God, poet Edwina Gateley, wrote about her common faith experiences. One poem that I find compelling is called: Silent Presence.

I thought that God
Had come to me.
That after the wild delights
And the sufferings and the joys
And the pain and the hopelessness
Of the years-
That God
Had come to me.
That after adventure and achievement,
Pain, despair and death,
God
Had come to me.
Yes-with relief and mild surprise
I met God again.
And I saw, Oh, fool, I saw!
That God had suffered
The pain and hopelessness
Had shared the achievements and joys,
That God,
All enveloping,
All compassion,
Had been there in silence
All the time. (P.33)

God is with us all the time. When we are in pain, God is in the pain. When we have been wronged, God is there. When we get punished for doing what we judged to be the right thing, God is there. We need to stop worrying about social evils being the result of the absence of a loving God, and realize that God is there in the midst of the evil. God is compelling us to learn, to change our ways, to speak and act for others.

There are many days when I doubt that from the current suffering of so many, precious seeds of new reality are being sown. Today God is asking to let go of the doubt, to trust that His death had meaning, that seeds will sprout, and that God is within our silence all the time.

© 2010 Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica
Atchison, Kansas