Tenebrae

Crucifixion Brokenness

I have just gotten home from our Tenebrae Service. The liturgy of Tenebrae is characterized by the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited. It is a service of shadows. It is a remembrance of Good Friday. We began the service with 7 candles lit and ended in darkness…or what was meant to be darkness. We had a little more light than care for. I have been to some services that ended in inky darkness and felt my way to the doorway through a game of trust.

But we were fine. We read an “account” from those at the foot of the cross; Mary the Mothr of Jesus, the soldier, Mary Magdalene (that was my part. I think it is the red hair), John, Joseph of Arimathea. It was a fictional account certainly. We really don’t know what it was like that day. I am not sure I want to know.

I left (after having dissected the service every which way) thinking of broken bodies and burials. I recall the broken body of a little boy in the ER a few months ago. I knew then that he would forever remind me of the broken body of Christ. I saw him held in his mother’s arms. Limp and lifeless. Bruised and battered. Pink cheeks still.

Perhaps it is this image we keep with us this day. A day that I had to remind myself that was a Christian holiday and yes things were still open. A day that still says "Friday" on the calendar.

It is an image of a mother left with her child. A mother whose tears washed her son’s body and whose tears were mixed with blood and dirt and shame.

A mother with no answers.

Not on Friday.