GOOD FRIDAY: WHERE ARE YOU GOD?

Posted on March 29, 2024 by franksantucci

In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:7-9

In the incarnation, Jesus became fully human and became one with us in all our experiences. On the cross, he entered into the extreme experience of human hopelessness: the sense of having been abandoned by God.

He became one with us in all those situations where we cry out in darkness and despair: “Where are you God, why are you absent?”

As we embrace Jesus Forsaken on this Good Friday, let us embrace the door that he opened through his suffering and death: his resurrection and ours.

St Eugene knew darkness and seeming-hopelessness many times in his life. Yet he recognized that in these dark moments, his Savior was present, and he attests to this in constantly in his writings. Just one example:

It is true that I have always put all my confidence in the goodness of God.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 16 February 1826, EO VII n 224

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 4:

“The cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission… Through the eyes of our crucified Saviour we see the world which he redeemed with his blood, desiring that those in whom he continues to suffer will know also the power of his resurrection (cf. Phil 3: 10).”

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1 Response to GOOD FRIDAY: WHERE ARE YOU GOD?

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    March 29, 2024 at 12:23

    As I sit here reflecting I find myself silently singing “Our God Reigns” It is like a backdrop to this day as we remember and celebrate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Only God could have orchestrated this, the death with the coming Resurrection… They are each one with the other.

    “Through the eyes of our crucified Saviour we see the world which he redeemed…” I heard someone say that Jesus was not on the cross that long – only about 3 hours and yet that was surely the most horrific 3 hours of his life. Imagine what he saw as he hung there, a few that stood close to the cross because they loved him, and a crowd who relentlessly scorned and jeered him. How did he see all of them before he died? If we see through the eyes of our crucified Saviour we will then see all through perfect love.

    “In so doing, we risk finding ourselves among the marginalized of our community, our society and our church, taking our place among the poor and the powerless, walking with those who, like us, hold within themselves tremendous beauty, strength and gifts, as well as weaknesses, brokenness and limitations, that together we may help one another experience the love of God…” (from OMI Lacombe Canada Provence Mission Statement)

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