Good Friday

As a Catholic, Good Friday is huge. It is the one day of the year when we really focus on Christ on the cross (and it also happens to be the one day of the year when the crucifix is hidden behind a cloth in the Church).

As a born-again Christian, though, it seems like every day is Good Friday. I prefer to pray in private, and my average prayer is pretty short, but one theme that always stays in my heart is Christ redeeming me for my sins. Christ accepted my guilt on his own shoulders, and took my punishment for me. When I see Christ on the cross, it is a reminder that Christ loves me, regardless of my sinful nature. Every day is a reminder that Christ loves me. Good Friday is all about that love.

It is a given that the most popular chapters to read on Good Friday are about the Crucifixion: Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. However, the reading that really gets to me on Good Friday is Psalm 22. On the cross, Jesus begins to recite Psalm 22 by saying "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Many, including myself, read this passage in the gospels before we read it in Psalms, so we have trouble understanding the context. Why would God ask Himself such a question? But then I read Psalm 22, and then my question changes: why would God recite this psalm at this time?

If Psalms could be associated with psychological disorders, Psalm 22 might be called bipolar. At first, David (the Psalmist in this case) is complaining that God is hidden and silent. "Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief" (Psalm 22: 2). I think a lot of us can sympathize with David here. Time and time again I have found myself praying to God, asking for direction, without hearing a response. There is no booming voice, no burning bush, no whisper from heaven. The clouds do not part for me, the sun does not shine a light on the answer to my problems.

But just because I do not see or hear a response to my prayer does not mean God is not listening. David says in the exact same psalm, "For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy. He has not turned his back on them, but has listened to their cries for help [...] All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy" (Psalm 22: 24-26). Although you may not hear God, God hears you. He is there for you, and those who trust in him will rejoice in His presence. David, despite starting his psalm on such a negative tone, actually ends by saying "His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done" (Psalm 22: 31). For someone saying God had abandoned him only 30 verses earlier, David is sounding pretty positive.

David had faith that God was present in his life, even in the troubled times. This, I believe, is the message Jesus was communicating to us from the cross. He did not want us to look at His Crucifixion and think about how He got there or how He died. He wanted us to have confidence that even in the hard times, He is with us. Even in our darkest hour and the thickest fog, God is with us.

God is always with us.