Apparently, we have a budding theologian among our children’s liturgy of the word group. He was smart enough to ask the question “Why do we call it Good Friday? We don’t call it Good Easter, or Good Sunday. So why do we call it Good Friday? There is nothing good about it.” Smart kid! On the most important level, he gets it. There is not much that is good about death. There is not much, on the surface level, that seems good about this day. But I love that he asked that question. I hope that he keeps asking that question, and questions like it for the rest of his life. For I believe that Good Friday is all about asking good questions….
He is not the first to ask questions about this day. The author of the letter to the Hebrews gives an answer to one of those good questions to ask in our second reading: Why did Jesus have to die? He tells us simply: Now we have a God who completely understands our struggle. Who completely gets the difficulties, the hardships, the wrenching losses and the physical pains of what it means to be human. In this, he reveals a God who is not aloof from our experience of life, but understands it completely. Thus, he concludes, we can confidently approach God to receive his mercy.
Perhaps a second “good question to ask on Good Friday” is: What do we know about God because of the Death of Jesus?
Fr. David Baronowski writes: The death of Jesus was absolute proof of God’s personal love and care for each of us. For the God who took on flesh and came among his people loves us in an individual and personal way. We are not simply one among billions. Each of us is the one for whom Christ died. As Saint Augustine told us, “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love.”
There is a story that my brother Joe tells in his First Communion video – it is about a soldier in battle time. The shelling was heavy and the soldier’s friend forward of the battle lines was caught in one of the first blasts. He saw his friend take the hit and he began immediately to climb out of the fox hole to get him. His sergeant pulled him back. “Where are you going son?” “I’m going to save my friend.” “You can’t go out there. Your friend is done for, and if you go out there, you will get killed or shot up as well. It is not worth it. Leave him, son.” “Sir, I’ve got to go, and you can’t stop me.” With that, he leaps out of the hole, and runs across the field to where his friend was laying. After a moment, he begins to hoist him on his shoulders and starts to carry him back. Another shell blows up, close by, and they both fall. After a bit, somehow, he gets back up and staggers his way back to the fox hole, and collapsed there, with the body of his friend. The sergeant is angry: “See, I told you it was not worth it. You friend is dead, and you are all shot up. What a stupid waste that was! It was not worth it.” “Begging your pardon sir, but it was worth it. You see, when I got there, my friend was still alive. He looked at me and said: ‘I knew you would come. I knew you would come.’ So you see, it was worth it.”
Isn’t THAT precisely why this Friday is Good? It reveals the promise of God to all of us who lie wounded and broken on the battlefield of life – that He will come to us. He may not take away our cancer. He may not cure our sickness. The terrorists that plotted Tuesday bombings may be plotting the next attack. But God will come – and we will not be alone.
And then, perhaps, there is this final GREAT question that I hope my young friend learns to ask: How might I live the goodness of this day in my own time and space? How might I be that compassion and mercy and presence of God in a world that saw the bombings in Brussels this week, and the beheadings of ISIS this year, the tragedies of the Syrian Refugees, and the seeming daily killings on the streets of North St. Louis? How might I take the power of the cross and make that a pledge for a different way of living in this world?
In a few moments – we will have a chance to venerate the cross. . Certainly bring all that is wounded and broken to that time – all that needs forgiveness and healing and grace. AND, bring the desire, however small and fledgling it might be, to continue to break open the power of that day in your time and your space.
Why is this day called Good? It is a great question to ask. And an even more important one for us to answer with our lives….