Coffee With God

Reflection: John 18:1–19:42

On his reflections on Good Friday, Fr. Ron Rolheiser had written these beautiful lines. He says: “Good Friday was bad long before it was good, at least from outward appearances.” How could this be good when God was being crucified? The author of the Gospel expressed it so poignantly that, as Jesus was dying, it grew dark in the middle of the day. As Jesus hung upon the cross, light gave way to darkness, love to hatred, and life to death. How could this day be good? Jesus no longer seemed divine, powerful, and in control of things. He seemed to be sinking into a personal doubt. Other than a few strong women who stood their ground, in spite of a hostile crowd jeering, everyone else was aiding in the crucifixion of Jesus, either out of ignorance, jealousy, or weakness. The Good Friday was not good. It exhibited humanity at its worst before God’s seeming silence. Even the angel who strengthened him in the Gethsemane seems to disappear when he is on the cross. A crushing dark night of doubt now torments him to the point of making him cry out with what seemingly sounds like despair: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” To understand the gravity of this feeling of despair, we must recall Jesus’ relationship with his Father. On how many occasions did the gospels say, “Jesus went out to a lonely place and prayed”? “The one who see me, sees the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me…I and the Father are one”;… “I have come to do the will of my Father” and as a culmination of this beautiful Father-Son union, he taught us to call the Father “Abba” – Dady! How would it feel if someone whom you love the most, abandons you at a time when you actually need him/her the most? In the face of that seeming abandonment, in ultimate darkness, Jesus had to make a choice for faith, love, and trust. He surrenders to the Father whom he cannot at that moment feel or understand but only trust. Here’s where Good Friday turns from bad to good, Jesus surrenders himself not in bitterness or anger, but in trust, gratitude, and forgiveness. In that surrender, he wins the most epic of all battles – the struggle between good and evil. Good Friday teaches us one thing: If we want to overcome those powers that crucify God and God’s people, we must like Jesus, let our bitterness and anger give way to trust, gratitude, and forgiveness. Like Jesus, we surrender ourselves to God even when we are betrayed, love even when we are hated, and forgive even when we are being hurt. All of us will have our Good Fridays. By appearance, they will look bad, but if we give ourselves over to God in trust, our bad Fridays will turn into good ones.