when God vanishes

"Why is it called Good Friday?" asked my son. "It's not good at all, it's really bad."

The shops are full of eggs and chickens and sunshine and cheer. But Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the most sombre days in the whole Church calendar, recalling the death and disappearance of God.  Not much there to celebrate or feel happy about.

For those who enjoy a degree of certainty in their faith, maybe Good Friday and Holy Saturday don't really "bite" - they are more about anticipation than devastation. But those of us who live with a fragemented faith, a faith that has had too many holes punctured in it, too much damage ever to recover a naive certainty, there is something reassuring about the rise and fall of the Church seasons. It's a relief to be honest, to acknowledge the disappearance of God and the uncertainty of the outcome. 

That's not to say that there is no hope of the resurrection. But that hope doesn't forestall the depth of blackness that can descend even upon people of faith. And the recollection that the Easter faith was born in the darkness is, perhaps, a reason to hold on and not to give up.

Comments

[Serena]

I remember saying almost exactly the same thing as a child. Part of me still thinks that Really Awful World-come-crashing-down Friday sounds more like it ...

[Caroline]

Amen

[Neale Adams]

One explanation of why we call it Good Friday comes from T.S. Eliot
in "East Coker," part of "Four Quartets"

The chill ascends from feet to kneees,
The fever sings in mental wires.
If to be warmed then I must freeze
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dropping blood our only drink,
The bloody flesh our only food:
In spite of which we like to think
That we are sound substantial flesh and blood--
Again, in spite of that, we call the Friday good.

[Chris(tine)]

Thanks, Maggi. This was the most meaningful-to-me Easter thoughts that I've heard this season.

[Kathryn]

YES