Tall Monastic Guy

Good Friday Loneliness

With the rich community that’s made up of the mentally ill and homeless that I serve there is a key phrase we often reference with one another “we’re never more poor than when we’re feeling most lonely and out of control.”

I don’t pretend anymore to understand all the doctrines that resulted from Good Friday but what I find myself increasingly leaning on out of my own desperation is the depth of loneliness that Jesus must have endured as he shamefully hangs there crying out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!”

How human would God go to show us his love?

The dark torture of Roman crucifixion, the cruel mockery by those who bear His image, the experience of abandonment by close friends… The whole package that made up Good Friday must indicate the excruciating degree of human loneliness and the feeling of being severely out of control that was felt by God first hand.

It was then, in that place of Good Friday loneliness that our brother, Jesus, not only reached his upmost poverty, but also showed us God’s upmost love. 

 

The reality of our culture

This commercial is a great description of why I'm encouraging the daily rhythms of prayer for Access...

This is the Empire of which we navigate...

It's time to create a culture to save us from our culture.

 

Our loneliness... Our invitation...

Does God get it? Can God truly understand the depths of our loneliness? How does God feel when we experience pain or when we’re in the role of silently waiting with and absorbing the pain of others? Is there a divinity beyond gain and loss? And a language to go with it? I know what I’m feeling but what is God feeling in those moments?

These are some of my questions this morning as I hold the cup.

In Henri Nouwen’s Can You Drink the Cup, he says,

“One thing I learned from it all: drinking wine is more than just drinking. You have to know what you are drinking, and you have to be able to talk about it. Similarly, just living life is not enough. We must know what we are living. A life that is not reflected upon isn’t worth living. It belongs to the essence of being human that we contemplate our life, think about it, discuss it, evaluate it, and form opinions about it. Half of living is reflecting on what is being lived. Is it worth it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it old? Is it new? What is it all about? The greatest joy as well as the greatest pain of living come not only from what we live but even more from how we think and feel about how we are living.”