Good Friday makes us uncomfortable and rightly so. We want to celebrate the Resurrection, but we are not there yet. Rather everything has been stripped away from our senses such as the use of bells, the cloths upon the altar, votive candles, and above all else the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated on this day. Rather, we are forced to place attention upon the cross of our Blessed Lord from which our salvation has been won for us. The cross, like this day, should make us uncomfortable. This is so because the Cross challenges us to surrender all unto Christ. To surrender our sufferings, our sinfulness, and our joys unto Christ in order that we may be transformed in His midst.
The Cross demands transformation from us because it demands that we love as God loves us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son who would surrender Himself as a gift of love upon the cross. He who offers Himself upon the cross is not man alone, but rather the one who is fully divine and fully human. The cross is God's love made manifest for us.
On this day may we begin to conform ourself to the cross. May we be willing to accept the cross into our life. We live in the midst of the world that attempts to avoid the burden of the cross, but rather the uncomfortableness of the cross joins us to God and His manifest love which is outpoured for each of us. May we come forth to venerate the cross and thus be willing to embrace it by the way in which we order our life on this earth.
