This week, Holy Week, is intensifying. Today, Good Friday, pain and joy meet in a strange apex, a fantastic mountain of the Lord. Moses climbed a mountatin and God spoke to him. When he returned, his face was shining so brightly that people could not look at it. He had to put a veil over his face.
Then God himself came down from the mountain through his Incarnation and lived amongst us. Today, Good Friday, he is lifted up again, on an unspeakable mountain. Anyone who thinks about it feels a strange tension and total incredulity: for me, who am so poor, God sent his Son to climb this mountain--a cross.
Just thinking about it holds you tight, close to this Love that is incomprehensible, incredible, but so real! God came and took upon himself the shape of a servant, a slave, for us. He surrendered everything including his body for love of us. He emptied himself.
The great question that stands before us on Good Friday is: are we going to empty ourselves in response to his emptiness? The moment we do, we shall know the joy of Christ! Notwithstanding the pain, the cross, the tomb, if I empty myself because I am in love with God, I shall know joy.
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