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_{Good Friday
March 21, 2008}

        We gather this evening to celebrate our Lord's Passion.  It may seem odd to call this a celebration.  We listen to the Word of God and hear Isaiah speak of a suffering servant, "marred" in appearance, "harshly treated" "spurned and avoided by people."  In the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear that Jesus "offered prayers...with loud cries and tears."  Finally, we read the Passion according to John, which ends in Jesus' death on the cross and burial in a tomb.  What's to celebrate in any of this?

        As Christians, however, we know that because Jesus suffered and died on the cross, sin and death will never again be the final word.  Jesus was "crushed for our sins" and his suffering and death "makes us whole."  From the chaos of the cross and suffering will come the creation of resurrection and new life.  Today, then, can really be called nothing other than Good Friday.

        But because we call this Good Friday and because we know suffering and death do not prevail, we should not then think that suffering is cause for celebration.  Too often, well-intended people will respond to another's tragedy...illness, loss of employment, death of a loved one...with a trite, "God knows best," or, "You just have to put it in the Lord's hands."  Indeed, it is a great grace to be able to offer our sufferings to God, to say with the psalmist, "Into your hands I commend my spirit."

        But this evening's liturgy, with the Word and the Cross and Communion, tells us that putting our suffering in God's hands is not a matter of a long-distance throw.  No, when we really suffer, we are up close and personal with God.  When we really suffer, we stand close enough to the cross to see that Jesus' hands are pierced and bloodied.  In Jesus, God suffers with us but promises that, no matter how terrible things get, we are never alone.

        Jesus tells us twice in this evening's Gospel: I AM. We know that I AM is God's name as revealed to Moses from within the burning bush.  It is a comfort for us to know that our God's name is not "I WAS": I was with you yesterday.  Nor is our God's name "I WILL BE": I will be with you tomorrow.  No, in Jesus, God tells us for all time: I AM with you always, here and now and forever.

        If God is with us in our suffering, then we are called to do no less for others.  After we venerate the Cross this evening, we will receive Communion.  In Communion we are united to Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection…and we are united to our brothers and sisters who are in need of our support during difficult times.  When we reach out to others who are suffering, it just may be that our doing so gives them the assurance that God has not abandoned them and will not let suffering and death be the final word.

        That is why we venerate the cross this evening, and that is why today is called Good Friday.  Not because we are morbid and depressed people who worship suffering and death, but because we know that to stand at the foot of the cross is to already be in the light of Christ’s Resurrection!