Good Friday Reveals That the Drama of Human Existence is Not Tragedy but Divine Comedy
April 21, 2011 by O'Meara Ferguson
Filed under Daniel Conway, O'Meara Ferguson News
From Dan Conway’s The Good Steward, April 2011 (special edition)
An essay written by Pope Benedict XVI in the early 1980s, entitled, The Lamb Redeemed the Sheep: Reflections of the Symbolism of Easter should be required reading for all Christians on Good Friday. As his title suggests, the pope offers insights into the major symbols of Easter: light, water, the Alleluia and, above all, the Lamb who was slain for us on the Cross.
Easter requires symbols because unlike Christmas which is full of familiar allusions—birth, the child, the family—Easter speaks of the unfamiliar experience of life beyond the grave. When speaking about eternal life, the Holy Father says, “We have no ideas to come to the aid of the words; we are feeling our way blindly in unknown territory and are painfully aware of our short-sightedness and cramped footsteps.”
None of us knows what life after death is like. But we believe that the power of death has been overcome by the infinitely greater power of our Lord’s self-sacrificing love. “He of whom Easter speaks—Jesus Christ—really ‘descended into hell.’ Jesus actually complied with the suggestion of the rich man: Let someone come back from the dead, and we will believe (Lk 16:27f)! He, the true Lazarus did come back so that we may believe. And do we?
