Celebrating Good Friday - Part 3

OK, my first two post regarding how to approach the celebration of Good Friday (1 and 2) had covered where I thought I had reached a good position. My mind was calm.

Then I thought that I should look to see if there were any notes included in the choir score for our church's "Tenebrae" service. The notes include:

As the candles are extinguished, they symbolize the fading loyalty of the disciples and friends of Jesus. The gradual darkening of the church portrays the diminishing light of the world as Christ was departing from it.

Then I also decided to talk with my wife, a very knowledgeable and well-educated woman. She added that the sorrow often dedicated to Good Friday should include the fact that Jesus suffered greatly for us, and we should make an effort to understand and feel some of that suffering ourselves.

So I guess now I need to combine everything into one thought process for me to fully experience my celebration. To sum it up:

• We should be sorrowful because mankind (and ourselves at times) turned on Jesus and made him suffer without merit.
• We should try to relate to the feelings of abandonment that Jesus felt on the cross, even abandonment by God.
• However, we should walk away hopeful at the same time, because we know that there is a celebration planned for Sunday. And we know that God didn't abandon Jesus (after all, the sky turned black and the earth trembled upon Jesus' death), and he won't abandon us either.

Still, these are conflicting emotions. I guess that the knowledge of Easter, though, gives us the luxury of taking a day to get in touch with the sorrow and suffering which we also deserve to feel. For, after all, "joy will come in the morning."