What's so good about Good Friday???

Today, I am honored to post a guest blog post from my friend Julie Mulherin. Julie’s friendship has been an incredible blessing to me: she has challenged and encouraged me in my passion of working for a more just world and she helped me fall in love with El Salvador.  I hope her reflections will bless you as we anticipate the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

What is so “good” about Good Friday? Nothing, without the anticipation of Easter Sunday. It is really the resurrection in which we find joy, rebirth, and goodness. While reflecting on Good Friday, I find it is amazing that God gave his only son to die. It was quite a sacrifice even knowing that Easter Sunday was on the way. For Jesus, Good Friday must have been incredibly painful as he gave himself and died the most perfect death in order to save humanity.

What makes it even more astonishing to me is that Jesus walks hand in hand with humanity everyday, even when it means crucifixion over and over again.  I can’t imagine how difficult and painful it was the first time, but Jesus’ love is so encompassing, he is re-crucified everyday with his suffering children.  

Using the backdrop of Holy Week to reflect on my experiences in El Salvador, I think I began to understand some of my experiences more clearly. It is quite difficult to articulate what my experiences in El Salvador mean to me and how they affect my life. I have spent a good amount of time reflecting with some wonderful people about what it is about El Salvador that is so special. Dean Brackley describes Salvadorans and others in poverty as having “something” that draws people back. What is that “something”? I can feel it, and at times I describe it differently. This week, however, I feel a strong connection with that “something” and the Easter story.

I have always loved my time in El Salvador, the culture, and the people. Sometimes people are surprised to hear that I could have such a love for such an impoverished country and people.  Jon Sobrino, a Spanish liberation theologian who has lived most of his life in El Salvador working at the Jesuit University, argues that the Western world uses too soft of vocabulary when talking about the impoverished world. Sobrino feels that terms like “the developing world” and “the Third World” don’t give justice to the suffering experience. Rather, he argues we should use the term “crucified people” because it more accurately reflects the reality.  In this way, I have seen first hand and have heard how people are crucified everyday in El Salvador. Crucifixion looks different than it does in our Good Friday story, but it is crucifixion nonetheless. It includes children dying of hunger, families working their hardest to barely survive, children being forced into gangs, human trafficking, rape victims, and countless senseless murders. The injustices of poverty cause crucifixion everyday, and Jesus walks along with these crucified people.

At the Jesuit University in El Salvador there is the most beautiful and quaint chapel with original Salvadoran artwork. In the back of the chapel there is artwork of the Salvadoran Stations of the Cross. These stations are sketches of dead, tortured bodies that were found during the Salvadoran Civil War from 1980-1992. The chapel chooses these pictures to show the Stations of the Cross because they depict that Jesus was being tortured along with these countless people. The fifteenth station, of resurrection, however, is missing. I have heard many different guides share different perspectives on why this last station, and arguably the most important station, is missing. The explanation that sticks out the most in my mind is that these stations represent the Salvadoran stations, and the Salvadoran people have not resurrected yet.

As I think about this, I can only partially agree. The people of El Salvador have not resurrected yet, fully. With the Salvadorans I await and pray for a full resurrection that ends the injustices facing the Salvadoran people. Even so, I have witnessed partial resurrections happening everyday. Resurrections are happening in a way, but we must await the final resurrection: they are already buy not yet.  When we think about Good Friday trying to put ourselves in the story is difficult, but we understand Jesus went through pain beyond our comprehension. Through this story, as tragic as it is, we see that glimmer of hope. We know the resurrection is on its way.

As I describe my experiences in El Salvador, I realize it can sound quite morbid, spending time to get to know and love a crucified people.  However, there is that “something” that pulls me back. I think that “something” is that same “something” we all experience throughout the Holy Week experience. On Good Friday it is the glimmer of hope. It is knowing that the resurrection is coming, that in fact, it is already happening. When in El Salvador, although surrounded by the crucifixion, I also feel surrounded by the resurrection. I see the resurrection in they eyes of a student who is able to go to school with a scholarship. I see it in a church that is brave enough to publically denounce injustices harming its people. I see it in a family who takes in an orphaned child even as they are struggling to survive themselves. I see the resurrection in groups of Americans who are transformed by their experiences in El Salvador ready to fight for a more peaceful world, ready to do their part to create the Kingdom of God here on Earth. I see the resurrection in the strength of a family who is ready to testify about crimes committed against them.  I see it in the Salvadorans drive to survive and their ultimate trust in the Lord.  Already, but not yet.

It is through my experiences in El Salvador that I am able to begin to understand what the original Holy Week was truly like. In my middle-class suburban life, the suffering of Good Friday seemed foreign to me. I was ready to jump right to Easter and find all those Easter eggs. It is through the stories and relationships I have with my Salvadoran friends turned family that I have really been able to understand the Suffering Christ. Without this understanding of the suffering, the joy of Easter seems watered-down. The joy of resurrection becomes richer and fuller with a more complete understanding of the crucifixion.

How humbling it is to be at the foot of the cross understanding the pain and suffering, but knowing the resurrection is coming. It is this feeling that pulls me back to El Salvador year after year. It is the resurrection amidst the pain of the world that inspires me! It is that taste of rebirth that drives me to El Salvador. I pray for the complete resurrection of this world.