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March 25, 2005

A Black Letter Day

Unlike Christmas, I'm happy to say that I quite enjoy Easter. First, it is the holiest day of the Church Year, much more significant than the birth of Christ. Second, it's not nearly so commercialized, though I could do without the Easter Bunny and his associated, latent pagan imagery. But I think Easter's commercialism imitates Christmas' in one significant way: it eclipses the preceding part of the Church Calendar. I doubt many Christians are able to recognize the significance of the Advent season, seeing as how the Twelve Days of Christmas start for them the day after Thanksgiving. Likewise, Lent has already trailed off into a Roman vagueness by now, and we hear wishes of a "Happy Easter" before the Festival of the Resurrection (and I doubt we shall hear it after, during the Easter Season).

To some extent, this is understandable, since adherence to the Church Calendar may be a bit too much to ask of contemporary worshippers, who aren't known for their appreciation of the liturgical heritage of the Church. I would contend, however, that today especially, all Christians should take note that it is not yet Easter. Today is Good Friday.

Before Jesus could overcome sin and death by his glorious resurrection on Sunday, he had to endure that sin and death today. What we will celebrate in two (three?) days is predicated by what happened today, and so it behooves us to mark this day as different. To ignore Good Friday and skip straight to Easter may even have theologically troubling implications. Pride makes us want to ignore our sin and skip straight to the Gospel message of salvation and joy, and appropriately, Easter is a celebration of that salvation. Good Friday, on the other hand, is a stark reminder of why we need Christ, why he died, and how he died.

There are inferior ways to mark it, perhaps through meditation or watching the Passion of the Christ, which Josh ably describes below. Much better to read the Gospel account, particularly Luke 22-23. My favourite way is a practice I only discovered in college, the Good Friday service, which I would highly recommend to our readers, not out of piety or obligation but out of the profundity of the experience. How can one ignore the haunting chant of the cantor as he sings the reproaches, starting with:

O, My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me!

But in our hearts we are convicted that we have no answer and that Christ suffered for our offenses.

Posted by Zach Wendling at March 25, 2005 10:29 AM

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