Don Divo Barsotti. Meditations for Good Friday

Good FridayFirst meditation
The suffering of Jesus continues in us, but at the same time the glory of his resurrection is made present in us
The mystery we celebrate proposes to our meditation one of the fundamental but also most disconcerting themes of Christianity. In the Old Testament moral evil was not distinct from physical evil. Everything was called "evil"; however, even if one spoke indifferently of one and the other, a distinction was implicit. For us Christians the distinction is so clear, so absolute that we see physical evil as the most effective means chosen by God for the destruction of moral evil. The Son of God dies on the Cross, accepts to suffer in his body and in his soul all the torments for the salvation of man and this salvation is the remission of sin (moral evil). Now this perspective tells us the greatness of suffering. We have to say it in quotation marks, yet we have to say it: "the good" of suffering in the Christian economy, because what God chose once, he chose forever and even today it remains true that from human suffering comes the good.Note: it does not even matter to suffer for God, says St. John Chrysostom; suffering as such always has a price. It is understood that if suffering leads us to rebellion against God, it becomes the reason for a moral evil and then it is clear that this can no longer be said; but to the extent that suffering, even if it is not experienced for God, is not however a reason for moral evil, this suffering always has a redemptive value, that is, it has the highest value that any human action can accomplish. And our action is more effective the more passive we are, the more we suffer from the evil of the world. It is a teaching that is disconcerting, difficult to accept, because our nature reacts to suffering with a certain instinctive repugnance and a certain instinctive rejection. But the fact of this instinctive reaction takes nothing away from the greatness of suffering. Before beginning his Passion, he prayed to the Father: "Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me". What is strange, then, if even our soul experiences an immediate reaction of repugnance and rejection of suffering, whether it affects the body or oppresses the soul? The liturgy of the Russian Church gives the highest proof of this teaching, celebrating as saints those who have suffered a violent death, even if they have not suffered it for the Lord, either directly or indirectly.All this tells us how, in fact, the evil of the world, I am not saying sin, but the evil of the world, the suffering of men, makes the Passion of Jesus present even today. Presence supposes that we are invested by Him, penetrated by Him, possessed by Him, become one with Him; it supposes, as I said yesterday, a certain immanence of Christ in us and of us in Christ.READ...