Good Friday

"And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split." (Mt 27:50)

The thunder of the powers of darkness seems to be ringing out this evening in Zaragoza, Spain. I am here on pilgrimage after a very blessed retreat in Loyola, Spain, where St. Ignatius had his conversion. (Thank you for your prayers!)

Every Holy Week, Spain's streets come alive with colorful processions that mark the events of Christ's Passion, death, and Resurrection. In between the usual liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, hundreds of members of religious brotherhoods here parade the streets with floats that depict scenes from Christ's Passion. They accompany their floats with a steady and deafening beat of drums that fills the city all day long.

As I listen this evening (now past midnight!), I can't help but relate the noise of the drums with the apparent victory that the chaotic powers of darkness celebrated today, thinking they successfully killed God. In fact, we know that by his death, Christ destroys Death and claims for us the definitive victory over sin and evil. But tonight, the drums beat in mocking pride – not yet aware of how hollow they will sound come Sunday.

Interestingly, the drummers hood themselves in "capirotes" that look to American eyes a lot like the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan. But the hoods here were traditionally worn by penitents who, in medieval times, would walk the streets in these "dunce caps" to be mocked and spat upon, while preserving their anonymity. Fused with the beat of the drums, the hoods now seem to signify the penitence we all share for wounding Christ with our sins and our desire to stand in solidarity with him who, for our sake, did not shield his face "from buffets and spitting." (Isaiah 50:6)

As we move into Holy Saturday, the day when all the earth stands still in quiet expectation of Jesus' Resurrection, let us not forget that whatever drums might be beating incessantly in apparent victory in our lives, none are too great for God to silence in His own time and in His own wisdom. Indeed, as the Psalmist puts it,

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult." (Ps 46:1-3)