Good Friday
Nancy Erts, OP
The Passion Narrative according to John, helps us understand how good this day truly is, since John places great emphasis on the “Glory” Jesus achieved. Jesus in his last words “it is finished” proclaims his absolute victory! He successfully negotiated (reconciled/integrated) his earthly and divine nature through its repeated birthing/suffering/dying and movement to a new life cycle.
Jesus remained faithful to living the human journey, growing more and more conscious of God’s power/energy operating within him.
He sustained a deep trust and bondedness to God despite temptations, threats, trials, and crucifixion perpetrated by promoters of human power and control.
Our human body, when expressing complete openness and vulnerability is in the form of a cross. The (+)
serves as an ancient archetypal symbol with in the unconscious of each one of us. The vertical bar symbolizes our inner divine nature and the horizontal bar our earthiness. It is necessary to carry one’s own cross in order to be resurrected (liberated and “lifted up”) to newer and greater consciousness. At the intersection of the crossbars is our “heart” chakra or energy center, for centering, balancing, and harmonizing the many paradoxes of the human/divine. It represents the acquisition of understanding, love, reverence, compassion and forgiveness. These are the fruits of consciously living the life process at the heart of the ever- unfolding universe described as (1) Differentiation, which is accepting and celebrating all the complex differences continually coming to birth in all creation. (2) Interiority,
Going into the center/temple of our true self, where God’s spirit guides us, in “taming”, reconciling, and integrating paradoxes and differences that we can’t accept in our ego self.
(3) Communion, celebration of unity in diversity, kinship and interdependence with all creation. Jesus successfully modeled for us how to live this process, saying, “To live we must die” to our ego and earthly perspective of power, control, and a hierarchy of privilege. If we die to these we will live as our true selves in “right relationship” with all creation, air, soil, water, fire, plants, animals, as well as one another.
In our ego selves, like Peter, Judas, the church and civic leaders in the Passion narrative, we are fearful of the “creative transforming pain” we need to undergo in order to grow into our “true self” into God’s image, so we let our ego take full control and thereby ‘nail’ ourselves and others to crosses of our own making.
By our betrayals, denials, prejudices, condemning innocent victims to death we cause a devastating, debilitating pain that holds us in bondage and alienates us from the possibility of forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, and communion we are called to in our inner and outer world. We are afraid to let go and let God, through contemplative prayer, into our deepest center, to free us and empower us to welcome the strange and different, befriend the enemy, heal dis-ease, and reconcile our vices and virtues, strengths and weaknesses.
I suggest we spend some time tonight and tomorrow with Peter, Judas, Pilate, the soldiers, as well as the women, Mary, and the beloved disciple, and lovingly accept the presence of all of them within us.
Then name and claim the one I most identify with today. Spend time in compassionate dialogue with them-discover what motivates them- if we can work to forgive the betrayer, the denier within us, then there is a chance of possibly forgiving the betrayer in our ‘outer’ world relationships.
Many spiritual writers attest to the fact that those of us who cannot name, claim and tame (or convert) the denier, betrayer, thief, crucifier within us are most likely to project them onto others by unleashing excesses of oppression, exploitation, or “holy wars” in the name of religion and justified civil governance.
So we can also ask our selves, as disciples of Jesus are we:
1.In support of revengeful, violent action in Afghanistan and sanctions in Iraq that have resulted in far more civilian tragedies than we experienced in the World Trade attack-or- are we moving in the direction of examining why we are so hated, especially in the underdeveloped countries of the world, and toward seeing the connection between extreme poverty and terrorism.
2.Are we behind our governments plans to use nuclear weapons on non-nuclear countries whom we label ”axis of evil” while we arrogantly break two major UN peace treaties ourselves- or- are we with the rising number of our citizens and many countries not supporting violence, which will only beget more violence.
3. Do we want to remain one of the very few countries still imposing the death penalty –or- join the 76% of the population in opposition to state imposed execution? (Personal reference to Robert Wall’s case in Missouri.)
4.Are we comfortable with being the lowest contributing developed nation toward the financial advancement, debt reduction, and fair trade agreements with poverty stricken nations- or -are we promoting dialogue and equitable sharing of resources, to bring about peace.
Jesus did not support passivity or violence as responses to evil. He challenged the “game playing” injustices of oppressors and exploiters cleverly, creatively, and courageously as we are called to do likewise until our earthly life is “finished”.
The cross of our bodies in the Y ‘glory stance’ that expresses an enthusiastic YES, O Lord through the good times and the hard times, not in a spirit of ‘Pollyanna’ hope, but a stubborn hope, that if we just show up, wait, and watch contemplatively, and work actively trying to be in the ‘right’ relationship with all creation and refusing to give up, the dawn of God’s peaceable ‘kin-dom ‘will come.
As those at the foot of the cross and Jesus mutually supported each other in this hope, we now support each other, so let us stand in the form of a cross touching each others shoulders and sing…
Song-Marty Haugen