Indivisble Mystery

Indivisible Mystery

Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message

April 12, 2017

“For I was determined that while I was with you,

I would focus alone on Jesus Christ, yes, even on the cross” (1 Cor 2:2). 

I was raised in a tradition that did not include the use of crosses or crucifixes: crucifixes were seen as idolatrous “graven images” forbidden by the second commandment, and crosses, even empty ones in the Protestant style, were seen as emphasizing the sufferings and death of Jesus rather than his resurrection.  We had Easter Sunday services that focused on the resurrection, but nothing on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday, for similar reasons.  It was only when I came to accept the tradition of Christianity handed down to us from the apostles that I came to love and appreciate the importance of the very ancient Christian practice of commemoration and celebration of all three days. 

Marion Hatchett, in his magisterial Commentary on the American Prayer Book, says: “In the first centuries, the Christian Passover was a unitive feast commemorating both the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Even though the Pashcal Vigil was preceded by a fast extending over the Friday and Saturday, there was no sense of separate commemorations of the death and the resurrection.  It was a single observance of Christ’s victory through death and rising to life again and of the Christian’s death and rebirth through baptism” (pp. 231-322). 

The Triduum, or three day liturgy, we are about to celebrate goes from darkness and pain to light and joy.  Without the Cross, there is no Resurrection; without the repentance and guilt of Lent, no joy in baptism; without the vinegar and gall, no sweet wine of celebration; without the pain and devastation of the stripped cross and emptied aumbry, no reassurance in the flowers, heady anthems, and Holy Eucharist on Easter Sunday.  St. Paul knew this when he focused not only on the resurrection of our Lord, but also on him “even on the cross.”  It is a package deal, a single event. 

The indivisible mystery of God made flesh suffering the worst flesh can suffer and then finding new flesh, more alive and vital than ever before, never to end, is what Good Friday and Easter are about.  It’s why we have crosses in our church, some even with carved representations of Christ.   It’s why adore the Holy Cross on Good Friday and sing the praises of the risen Lord throughout the Great Fifty Days of Easter.

Grace and Peace,

Fr. Tony+