Good Friday.
What looks good about this?
As a child, I always wondered why we called the day Jesus died, "good". It was good for us, but not for Jesus, at least not for his humanity.
Catholics are often chastised, or worse, for leaving Jesus on the cross. Catholics venerate the crucified Christ because we know that it is by his wounds we are healed. There is no Easter Sunday Resurrection without the suffering of Friday.
But this year, I have been considering the Catholic crucifixes that we typically see in our churches and homes. They usually look similar to this one.
And yes, I have always felt shame and sorrow at this depiction. This is my Lord Jesus Christ, and He is suffering and dying on a torture device. Of course it is difficult to comprehend, but I wonder how much we lose by failing to demonstrate what the crucifixion of our Lord actually looked like.
When The Passion of the Christ first came out, people were horrified at the violence depicted. One critic said that it was typical Mel Gibson over-doing the gore for effect. Not according to the prophet Isaiah. He described the truth just as graphically. A reason the gospel writers could not describe the crucifixion in greater detail is because they were too horrified.
I wonder as we whitewash our image of Christ crucified, are we also whitewashing our sin and the reason He is on that cross.
When we look at the more acceptable version of the crucifix, we may be tempted to say, He looks pretty normal. It was only three hours on the cross. How great was the suffering? This line of thinking takes us to, I'm pretty normal. How bad are my sins. I haven't murdered anyone. I'm a nice person. According to a reflection by Peter Kreeft, Jesus wasn't nice, he was shocking. This is more like it. This is more accurate. This is shocking. The God of the universe, the Holy of Holies suffered this. For me. For you.
I endeavored to explore this Holy Week how shocking my sins actually are, not the whitewashed versions that I rationalize for myself, or the tongue-and-cheek comments that I make casually when talking with friends about our vices. I mean the real, ugly, wretched thoughts, actions, impulses, and words that did this to my Lord Jesus.
This image is difficult to look at.
So are my sins.
When we whitewash what Jesus went through by failing to gaze upon the brutality of His suffering, we are tempted to whitewash our contribution to that suffering.
I watched the Passion when it first came out and swore I would never watch it again. I didn't think I needed to. I was wrong.
It is difficult to look upon this reality. Again as the prophet Isaiah said, we hide our faces because it is too painful to see. This Good Friday, perhaps we should take a moment to consider the reality of our own sinfulness that contributed to this suffering.
The final thought that I had today is the flip side of a common Good Friday homily. We are often reminded that Jesus would have died on the the cross if each of us had been the only one to save. The flip side has my soul trembling today. Christ would have suffered death if I was the only person, but I realize that the wounds He suffered would have been the same, even if I was the only contributing sinner.
Lord, have mercy on me.
Praise God, that Sunday is coming. Lord, make me worthy.
We praise you and we thank you for by your holy cross you have redeemed the world... and me.
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