Good Friday

Most of my recent posts have been edited and finalized versions of older essays, or arguments lifted from current debates. But as it is Holy Week, and most particularly Good Friday, I thought I'd change things up a bit.

This is only the second post I've written expressly for this blog, so we'll see how it goes.

After some soul searching, and counsel from a fellow apologist, I've decided that a post themed to the suffering of Good Friday would be appropriate. But being me, I've decided to add my own little twist. In one of the books I'm working on, I explore an idea that I call the Hidden Joy. I think of it as the final element of mysticism. But what's the first step on the mystic path?

That, I think, will be my specific subject today. And while I cannot better, or even equal the great Saints, Mystics and writers who've gone before me, I hope to at least present a respectable echo of their message.

Good Friday marks the date of Christ's Passion and Death upon the Cross at Calvary. In addition to this being the most noteworthy time of suffering for Christ, it's also perhaps the most poignant affirmation of the Christian path which we are to follow.

It can rightly be said that, "The way of Christ is the way of the Cross." And the imagery of Christ's Passion and Death is something found throughout the Gospels as Christ continually instructs His disciples in the necessity of taking up their crosses and following Him. And the disciples being the disciples, at that time they didn't understand, but later they would. For the modern Christian, the way of the Cross refers to everything from watching dramatized accounts in film to performing the Stations of the Cross meditations, or even to the common understanding that all our burdens in life, and our struggles, are part of our own cross to bear.

For the Christian mystic (and in one sense we are all such mystics), the way of the Cross is an imitation of Christ, and imitation of Christ is the first step to the piercing of mystery that is the heart of mysticism. If we seek understanding of the God who became Man and walked among us, the very first place we will turn will be to that God's suffering. There is no more common or powerful element to the human experience than suffering, and so it is through suffering that God taught us to truly know God. God knew well that we would identify first and foremost with pain.

There is a lesson in every aspect of the Way. Each step down the via dolorosa, each fall by the Lord beneath His burden, each helping hand along the way, each tear down His mother's face, each nail into the flesh, each thorn into the scalp, each lash down the back, each betrayal by a close friend, each abandonment by a disciple.

Each sin which He took upon Himself.

That lesson, simply, is that we will know this pain and this path, if we follow Him. We will all walk down a personal via dolorosa in this life. But we will never walk it alone.

And as we take our own steps down the walk of human life, we shall call to mind the path of Christ, so that with every step we take, every breath, every tear drop, and every sin forgiven, we can become closer to God through the Grace of His Son. When He steps, we step. When we fall, He falls. When He dies? We shall die, and like Him rise again to Eternal life.

Anyways, for the moment I'll conclude this. Good Friday is for more important things, anyway.

God Bless, and may you know some small measure of the Lord's Passion this day.