The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
BLACK FRIDAY REPLACES GOOD FRIDAY
It is one of those curious ironies of the secular age in which we live that Black Friday, the shopping day after Thanksgiving, is more important than Good Friday. Of course, Good Friday was never important, even before the rise of the electronic age, our dependency on all things on-line.
- Good Friday denotes the price Jesus paid to buy us back from the results of Original Sin, alienation from the Father. Black Friday is the price we will go to any lengths to pay just for an additional 10% off a refrigerator that we probably don’t need.
- Good Friday is the day that Christ suffered death for us so that we could regain our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. Black Friday is the day that we suffer inconvenience by getting up at 6:00 a.m. to stand in line to wait for bargains that do not add value to our journey to Forever.
- Good Friday is the sign of the cross, the contradiction that makes a crucifixion a sign of healing rather than punishment. Black Friday is our obcession with all things material and our question for wealth of things rather than values of the Spirit.
- Good Friday is a day of atonement for our sins against God and each other, a way to reaffirm that we wish to love God with all our heart, our souls, our strength plus our neighbor as ourselves. Black Friday is a day of materialism, a way to reaffirm that we still suffer the effects of original sin.
- Good Friday is a day when we think of the love Jesus had for us. Black Friday is a day when we think of the love that we have for ourselves.
That in all things, may God be glorified. -St. Benedict
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