In 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche published his work The Gay Science, which includes his famous parable of “The Madman.” The Madman runs into town carrying a lamp seeking for God. The local atheists laugh him to scorn before he yells at them: “God is dead, and we have killed him.”
Nietzsche’s philosophy, especially regarding Christian ethics, was flawed, to say the least. He believed that Christian morality was concocted by the weak to put the strong and capable into a slave mentality, solely because that was the only way to keep themselves alive. He missed the point by a wide mark. But one thing he did get right, if accidentally, is that famous phrase: God is dead, and we have killed him.
Two thousand years ago, on a Thursday night, a mendicant Rabbi prays to God to forestall the coming agony he is about to undergo. One of His closest associates and disciples, a member of His inner circle of Twelve, His new Sanhedrin, comes to betray Him and hand Him over to the old Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin condemns Him to death for His claim that He is the Divine Son of Man as revealed in the Prophecy of Daniel. They condemn Him to death for claiming to be God.
The local Roman government, fearing the riots of the Jewish establishment, consents to put Him to death, despite overturning the Jews' guilty verdict. They sentence Him to die "The Death," the one form of execution that was legendary throughout the Empire for its excruciating pain. This pain was so excruciating that the Romans named it: excrucio. From the cross. Excruciating. This death was so awful that Seneca called the cross the "cursed tree."
First, the Rabbi is subjected to the full fury of the Roman lash: bones and pieces of iron tear His flesh to ribbons, exposing His tendons, muscle tissues, and even His very bones. The centurions hear that His crime is claiming to be the King of the Jews and so, looking for a bit of extra entertainment, they fashion Him a crown made of thorns and give Him a rod as a symbol of authority. They give Him false worship and beat Him with the rod they gave Him.
He carries His Cross through the street as an example to any other Jews that this is what they have coming to them if they claim royalty, much less divinity. They reach the Place of the Skull, a popular location of execution for malefactors which was probably so named because it was littered with the skulls and other remains of crucifixion victims. They strip Him naked, leaving His shame to be seen not only by His enemies who had come gleefully to watch Him die but also by His Blessed Mother and closest friend who had come to mourn His consummation. The Romans run nails through His hands and feet, fixing His lacerated body to a splintered piece of wood where He is to die slowly by asphyxiation for the next three hours.
Approaching the third hour, the sky turns black, and the winds begin to blow. The Man on the Cross looks up to the sky and gives Himself to God: "in manus tuas, commendo spiritum meum." He whom the stars could not contain became contained in a womb. He who lit the sun walked under it for thirty-three years. For this reason, the sun and other stars could not bear to watch their Master's death and covered the sight of it from their faces.
From birth, we are all destined to die. Every person walks the path of life right to the spot where he will finally pass into eternity—even God. God’s situation was different from ours though, for we die because of our sins and the sin of our first father. We die because we deserve it. God did not die not because He deserved it. God died because we deserved it, and He saved us from it.
Good Friday is the one day a year when Christians and Nietzscheans say with the same vigor and mourning: God is dead! And we have killed Him.
“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us---for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.” In the mouth of Nietzsche, these words are the words of a madman. In the mouth of the Christian, these are the words of a saint.
How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? For within each of us lies Mount Calvary, and with every mortal sin there is the Crucifixion! How shall we comfort ourselves when every time we commit the most venial of sins, we commit to Christ's flesh the most grievous of lashes?
Who will wipe the blood of God from us? What water is there to cleanse us of our crime? God does not cleanse us of His blood: the only thing that can cleanse us of this blood bath is to bathe in His Blood. Christ looks at us and says “you wanted My blood? I won’t just give it to you, I’ll drown you in it! And then I'll raise you triumphant from it as I was Raised triumphant.” What can cleanse us, save the waters of baptism, where we die The Death with Him and are raised to life-anew in His resurrection?
What sacrifice of atonement have we to offer? We ourselves can offer nothing, but God takes this high crime of Deicide and turns it into our atoning sacrifice. We who put God to death find our atonement in the very act that should have been our universal damnation. We deserved to die for eating the fruit; how much more do we deserve to die eternally for killing God?
Christ took His death and made it our source of hope, and gave to us a renewal of this hope every day on the Altar of Sacrifice during every Holy Mass, where this same Death is made present for us mystically in the Eucharist. We demanded of Christ His Body and Blood, and He responded: "Not only will I give Myself to you, I'll give Myself to you for food!"
Must we become gods to appear worthy of this deed? No, not gods, but conformed to God's image. Through this sacrifice, Christ allows us to be transformed by His grace, not only into better men, but into partakers of His divine nature. Iron heated in a blazing fire does not itself become fire, but it glows as red and hot as the blazing inferno. Likewise, when we are in God, we do not become gods, but we shine with the brightest glory that you would only ascribe to gods. Through Christ’s sufferings, we are not only made whole but made new. In Christ’s earthly life, we become heavenly beings.
The penitent Christian and the ardent Nietzschean both agree today: God is dead, and we have killed Him. What a great shame is ours for committing this tremendous deed.
As Christ hangs in agonizing torment, He breathes His last and dies. In a fit of rage at the unjust death of its creator, the earth trembles, unable to contain its ire. The rocks, who would themselves have cried out praise to Him had the Jews not done so on Palm Sunday, crumble under the sorrow they felt at His passing.
The veil of the Temple tears in twain at the moment He dies. The Temple veil separated the Holy of Holies, the place where God Himself dwelt, from the rest of the world. The veil covered and clothed God. It was, and still is, a traditional Jewish custom to tear your clothes at the funeral of a loved one. At the death of His only begotten Son, God the Father rents His garment and grieves with His creation.
Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar and hyssop, put it to his mouth. Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. Then the Jews, (because it was the parasceve,) that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that was a great sabbath day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe. For these things were done, that the scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of him. And again another scripture saith: They shall look on him whom they pierced. - St. John 19:28-37
May God bless you and give you a Holy and Penitent Good Friday.
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