You Didn’t Kill Jesus, and You’re Allowed to be Happy Today

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but you didn’t kill Jesus.

A lot of wise people are talking about this right now, and I want to add to their voices from a Catholic perspective. You absolutely did not kill Jesus. You couldn’t have. Jesus is God. Jesus voluntarily chose to come from Heaven to Earth in order to suffer with you because He loves you and couldn’t stand for you to suffer alone. The name of this event is the Incarnation. It happened over two thousand years ago and you couldn’t have had anything to do with it. In His life on earth, Jesus was often in danger of death and just didn’t die, because it wasn’t the time He’d chosen to die. When His own people tried to throw Him off a cliff or stone Him, He just walked away. When He tried to walk on water in the middle of a storm, it worked out. He’s God.

On the day known as Good Friday, all the people together, His own people and the occupying forces, lynched Jesus. They tortured Him in the grisliest ways and nailed Him to the cross. He could have gotten out of that but He voluntarily submitted to be helpless for the day, not because you’re a horrible person and He wanted to take the punishment God the Father wanted to pour onto you, but because He knew that there was so much suffering, trauma, injustice and horror in the world, and He wanted suffering people to always know that He was standing there with them instead of with their oppressors. He wanted to come down and dwell with us in our suffering, so that no matter what we suffer, it’s always a participation in the Passion of Christ and a kind of prayer. He chose to make this the means by which Heaven was opened, not because Heaven required a sacrifice but because God always seeks to bring the greatest good out of the worst evil.

And then, at three in the afternoon, He gave up the Ghost, voluntarily, because Life belongs to Him and He’s the only one who can choose to give it up. And He descended into hell, so that there could never possibly be a place where a person could find themselves where God had never been.

You didn’t do any of that.

Jesus wasn’t forced to do it to save you from a vindictive drunken Father who wanted to do it to you. The Father loves you, the Son loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. They don’t love you with some kind of prudish sadistic false love you might have experienced from abusive parents or teachers. They really, genuinely love you and they like you as well.

You are allowed to be happy, today and any day.

It’s also okay if you’re sad. Jesus will be sad with you. But you’re allowed to be happy.

You do not have to sit in church for all of the Three Hours and the Seven Last Words, and then for the entire Good Friday service, and then stay until the Tenebrae Responsories and come home exhausted. You can if you want to. They’re beautiful prayers. But they aren’t compulsory. You can come for only some of them. You can stay as long as you like. You can leave when you’re exhausted. You can stim in the foyer because sitting still is painful. You can listen to them on livestream as you clean your house. You can listen to something else, like Sacred Harp music or the Newsboys, if that’s how you’d like to pray. You can watch Jesus of Nazareth. You can go for a hike or to the beach. If it’s all too overwhelming you can watch cartoons or play a video game until you’re feeling better. You’re allowed to feel better today.

You’re allowed to make your one meal today something tasty that you like. You can go to the Lucky Dragon and order the really good shrimp stir fry with the red peppers. You can go to the bakery and eat a nice loaf of artisan bread or a cupcake. You can have some Easter candy ahead of time with your meal if that’s what you want .If you’re too sick to fast– and remember, mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and PTSD are sicknesses– you are not required to fast at all. And you’re not required to feel sad just because you aren’t fasting. Eat something really good. Or, if it would make you feel guilty and ruin your day to eat normally, you’re allowed to sip Ensure or other meal replacement drinks to stay nourished and still eat only one meal.

You are not required to go to confession today. You can if you want to. The Church only requires you to confess mortal sins, once a year. If you’re not sure you committed a mortal sin in the past year, you probably didn’t, because mortal sin requires a lot of conscious deliberation. The crowds will be much better next week if you want to go to confession but you’d rather do it then.

You don’t have to feel guilty or upset today. If you do, that’s all right. But you don’t need to.

Good Friday is called “Good Friday” for a reason. It’s the day we found out just how good our God really is. And since we’re made in His image,  and since He loves us so very much, it’s a day to remember how good we were made to be and how good we can become.

You’re allowed to be happy about that.

The real party starts Sunday, but you are allowed to be happy now.