In the Eastern Orthodox church the season of Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter) is called the season of Bright Sadness. Bright because we who live on this side of history know the end of the story; that death was defeated and Christ is alive. And Sadness because we reflect not only on our own sin and the ways we fall short in our relationships with God and with others, but also on the horrific details of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross and the silent days that followed before he rose again.
Today is Good Friday — the day we commemorate Christ’s betrayal, trial, beatings, and crucifixion. A day that embodies Bright Sadness for us. On this Friday we go about our normal lives with all of the human joys, worries, tasks, pain, needs, and plans. We know that God is with us. We also think about and hold the silent, horrified space that Jesus’ death created for those who had been with Him. We enter into the vacuum his death left behind — the silence that felt like the world was over — because we can also relate to those emotions and feelings.
As Christians we never mourn as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13) but mourning and lament are part of the human journey. It is impossible to be human and not be scarred by sorrow at some point in our lives. There are still times in our lives when God is silent; when it feels like nothing is ever going to happen again. C.S. Lewis writes in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe about the night the great Lion, Aslan, dies:
“I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been – if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you – you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing is ever going to happen again.”
In those times when we feel like we have no more tears left inside we remember the silence and sadness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and we also remember the incredible brightness of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday. We remember that the story is GOOD. It is beautiful. It is LOVE. God never leaves us and is with us even in the silence.
Today, as we enter into Good Friday, we invite you to spend time in silence before God. Set aside 10 minutes without any agenda other than to be silent and to be with God. Set aside words and written prayers and devotional plans for this day and trust Him in and through the silence.
May you be blessed in the Bright Sadness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. We look forward to celebrating Resurrection Sunday with you!
……..
When we have really met and known the world in silence,
words do not separate us from the world nor from other men,
nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer
trust entirely in language to contain reality.
Truth rises from the silence of being
to the quiet tremendous presence of the Word.
Then, sinking again into silence, the truth of words
bears us down into the silence of God.
Or rather God rises up out of the sea
like a treasure in the waves,
and when language recedes
His brightness remains
on the shores of our own being.
– Thomas Merton