Good Friday

As the old joke goes, Nietzsche was right only one night a year. Here's a bit from von Balthasar to mark the occasion:

To the Galatians, he [Paul] will boast of nothing save the Cross (Galatians 6, 14). That Cross is the mid-point of saving history, all the promises are realised in it, every aspect of the Law, with its quality as curse, is dashed to pieces on the Cross. The Cross is the centre of the world's history, for it transcends the categories of 'elect' and 'non-elect' by reconciling all human beings in the crucified body which hangs there (Ephesians 2, 14ff). It is the mid-point, too, of all creation and predestination, inasmuch as we were predestined, in Christ's blood, to be the children of God 'before the foundation of the world' (Ephesians 1, 14ff). Paul himself simply intends to carry out the ministry of preaching, by way of service to the reconciliation of the world to God in the Cross of Jesus (II Corinthians 5, 18). What he takes it upon himself to announce thereby is not just one historical fact among others, but that complete upheaval, that re-creation of all things, which the Cross and Resurrection brought about. 'The old has passed away, behold, the new has come!' (II Corinthians 5, 17). Here, then, is the innermost truth of history...In the Cross, then, is manifested the entire 'power of God' (I Corinthians 1, 18, 24).

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, trans. Aidan Nichols, O.P., (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990), pp.16-17.


Pax Christi,