Where's the "Good" on Good Friday?

© srhelena2012

For Catholics this is not a new question.  As we celebrate the Lord's Passion on Good Friday, we are reminded once again  that Christ suffered and died for us.  It is hard enough for someone to die for a good person, but for a bad one,for sinners like us,  it is even more unfathomable.  This was St. Paul's insight.  When I listen to the reading of the Passion on Good Friday, I will surely ask myself as I have many times: "Jesus,couldn't you have saved me another way?  Why did you have to suffer and die?" If I was a theologian I would probably come up with some deep, intellectual explanations.  I would probably say that the measure of payment should be equal to the offense. It's perfect justice.  While that is true  I prefer to think that it was love and love alone which made Jesus do what he did. "No greater love one has than to lay down his life for his friends."  The Pharisees brought Jesus to his Cross but it was love that kept Him there.  Love for us and love for the Father.  It is really that simple.  And what do we do with that realization?  Saint John of the Cross had an insight: " Love is repaid by love alone."  St. Therese exclaimed "Love alone attracts me."  Saint  Elizabeth of the Trinity explains:
"A Carmelite (or any baptized person)  is a soul who has gazed on the Crucified One; who has seen Him offering Himself as a Victim to His Father for souls and, recollecting herself in this great vision of the charity of Christ, has understood the passionate love of His soul, and has wanted to give herself as he did!"  That is why Good Friday is good.  It makes us understand that sufferings taken or endured for God can become a source of so much good.  It also tells us that we are precious because we have been bought with a price more precious than any glittering gold- the life of God's only Son.  It is good because we have been brought back to God and we are once again heirs of the Kingdom.  So as we enter the drama of the Lord's suffering and death, we look with anticipation to the joys of a new life, a new beginning.  As the morning sun rises on  Easter Sunday, we can look forward with joyful anticipation to the promise made by the Risen Lord:  "See, I make all things new!"  We can always begin again...