Good Friday

It started as a sad day should, with a grey cloud cover,breeze and a threat of rain.It seemed more like an October day on Long Island than a Spring day in the South. I had to look out and see the pink dogwood blossoms to become grounded in this day at the end of Lent.

I am sure that miles of words have been strung together that dig deeply into the meaning of this day for humanity.I always try to look away from the things that the gospel records as being too hideous for thought.On this Good Friday, I wonder about this God that CHOSE to become human and what that meant on this day two thousand years ago.This wasn't a marble statue god or one who set the whole thing in motion and then withdrew to watch.This human came to know everything that we encounter in our lives:betrayal,pain,death,misunderstanding of what we mean and uncertainty.The latter leaps out to me in response to today's Liturgy of the Hours.

When I retired in 2000,I drove away from my work place with uncontained joy.No more 78 mile commute,no more strange employees and hostile customers.Free at last.The next day, reality settled.What would I do? Would I just wait for the first debilitating disease? Inwardly, I painted a picture of all the woes that would beset me in old age.It wasn't pretty or hopeful.I had no answer then but I do recall going to church after that questioning and receiving the message to "find joy".I wasn't left with just that admonition,I have been shown the way.

This is the Canticle that warms me and fills me with hope on this day:

"..For though the fig tree blossoms not
nor fruit be on the vines,
though the yield of the olive fail
and the terraces produce no nourishment,

though the flocks disappear from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet will I rejoice in the Lord
and exult in my saving God.

God,My Lord,is my strength;
he makes my feet swift as those of hinds
and enables me to go upon the heights."   Habakkuk 3