If you are a Christian using the Gregorian calendar for the liturgical dates, today is Good Friday, the day that Jesus was nailed to a cross, the story being that he, an innocent man, was killed there in the place of all sinners.
Of course, that’s not the end of the story for Jesus. Three days later* he
comes to life again, or as they say, resurrected.
My Pagan friends will point out that Jesus’ story mirrors the story of many
older European and Middle Eastern religions, and indeed the yearly crop cycles
of Middle-latitudes of the Northern hemisphere where the crops appeared to die
in winter, and then miraculously Spring back to life, or indeed the sun itself
slowly disappearing during winter only to return again in Spring.
As someone with an Unorthodox faith, I don’t take the story
literally. Its symbolic (as are most things in religion).
Taken together, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we see the symbolism
of the ending of the old and oppressive and the start of a New Hope (May the Force
be with you). In Pesach and in Ramadan, also happening at the moment, there is
also the thread of unjust suffering at the hands of the world, and renewal
through faith, of the good overcoming the oppressive. The end of something old,
the start of something new, the opportunity to let go of the burdens of the
past and look forward to the future.
For me, it is a day of looking back over the past year. Of recognizing that
which has been burdening me, and letting them go. Of recognizing the things I
have had to leave behind, whether by choice or necessity. Even for things that
needed to end, are good to end, I can mourn their passing. It is a time to draw the line under
them, to hang all of that on a metaphorical cross, be thankful for a place to
hang it, and let it go.
Tomorrow evening, as Gregorian Calendar Christians walk into a quiet and
darkened church and pass the light of a candle to each other, spreading the
Light until the whole church is lit, I too can look forward to what lights up my
life. I can take the symbols of New Life, New Light, fertility and abundance of
the season and be thankful for the things I have been blessed with.
But that is not for today.
Today, though, today I look back. And say goodbye to the year that has passed,
for good and for ill. It has ended.
* Its not three days afterward, but on the third day, Friday being the first
day, and the Saturday vigil being in place of a pre-dawn service on the Sunday,
the first candle lit from the first rays of the new dawn. Symbolism y’know.
