Good Friday, March 25

For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set for in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1:9-10

The waning light lit the raindrops as they fell and flowed in rivulets along the steep narrow street in Cincinnati. The people were lining up with umbrellas as far as the eye could see to climb the steps to the stately stone church on the hill with its tall green steeple.

I had come to watch them again this year. The old woman dressed in a black babushka knelt on the first step and began saying the Rosary, “Hail Mary, full of grace. . . . .” Up this steep cascade of at least sixty stone steps, people were standing, kneeling, and praying. There were women, men and children holding their grandfathers’ hands, learning this ritual that had gone on for years and years on Good Friday.

“These people,” I thought, “care about the Savior dying.” They would stand for hours to pray and unite with a mystery beyond their comprehension. At last they would silently go home and wait through the hushed hours of Holy Saturday Triumphantly, on Easter Sunday, they would make their way back to the church to celebrate in joy the deliverance of all humankind. They knew how to connect with the deepest places in the human heart, offering themselves up in prayer to the crucified Savior.

They return year after year to the church on the hill. Finally, in time, the children become the old men who hold their grandchildren's hands and the old women in babushkas reverently kneeling on the steps, in the rain, on Good Friday.

Dear Lord God, we do not want this time that your son, Jesus Christ, suffered death at the cross to go unheeded by us. We are silenced by the mystery and enormity of his sacrifice. We ask that our hearts be united with you this day. In the name of Christ. Amen.

Sally Muir, from the 1995 Lenten Devotional