Does Good Friday CHANGE you?

This letter was authored by Matt  Wielgos, Executive Producer of Franciscan Media Productions.  I know it sounds silly, but I honestly couldn't find a link to the letter online.  So I credit Wielgos duly, but without a link.  His brief reflection is piercing as it is insightful, and worth thinking about on Good Friday.  May you have a Good Friday that is holy, thoughtful, and which radically changes you forever, in the endless love of Christ!

CHANGE

Does the word change conjure up anything in you? Each of us approaches change differently. I may love change, relish in it, embrace it, and look for opportunities to engage it. I may hate change, fear it, stress over it, and work against it. Our attitude and perspective on change may vary, based on each circumstance and its perceived impact on us.

I see change as an instrument of God. Look at the change effected by one man's decision 2,000 years ago in a garden as he sweat beads of blood from his pores! In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus contemplated the reality of his circumstances and the impact that accepting them would have. This is not the posture of a man enthusiastic for change. How much easier it would have been for him to say no, to resist and avoid the personal hardship, plus excruciating physical, emotional and spiritual pain in store.

Doesn't Jesus exemplify a Christian perspective on change? It's not a embrace of change for its own sake or rejecting change because it challenges my comfort level. It is accepting change as it comes through the hand of divine providence—without guarantee, with a promise only of instability and re-direction. It is surrender to the depths of one's person, abandonment into God's will. We celebrate Jesus' embrace of providence through acceptance of change. It's called Easter, and it's embodied in the resurrection.

What does the word change conjure up in you?