Good Friday: My childhood rituals
I grew up the son of an evangelical preacher man. However, the Holy Spirit was no match for my Adamic nature. That’s why I found so many things dispiriting about my childhood.
Most dispiriting was having to listen to the same sermon over and over again. Not least because I knew full well that my Daddy expected me to be moved by the Holy Spirit anew each time.
In fact, by age 10, my mind, body, and soul had become inured to “inspired” sermons from the pulpit. And trust me, if you find yourself parroting them verbatim from your pew, your soul has become inured too. Only the wife of a bloviating and vainglorious politician could possibly relate.
Saving grace: Easter Monday holiday
I could never disguise the spirit of suspended animation that got me through the rituals that attend the Easter season. This stood in stark contrast with how others affected the countenance each occasion warranted — from grief on Good Friday, mourning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, to joy on Easter Sunday, celebrating His resurrection.
My animated countenance was due entirely to anticipating what fun Easter Monday would bring. It’s the first beach holiday of the year in the Caribbean Commonwealth.
But oh! the guilt I suffered for supplanting religious pathos with this hedonistic anticipation!
Religious guilt and God’s forgiveness
Thank God I figured out before my puberty was in full bloom that God forgives all. That allowed guilt-free revelry not only in my “sinful” thoughts, but also in the diabolical pleasure I derived from the passion plays our church performed every Easter. That’s because my recurring role was one of the soldiers who flogged Jesus Christ (as he crawled his way to Golgotha).
That brings me to the essence of my Good Friday sermon. I address it particularly to Christian parents who coerce their children to attend all manner of church services — just as mine did when I was a child.
God will forgive the little children for not getting all worked up each year to pay scripted homage to his son’s crucifixion and resurrection. He will even forgive them for not writhing with the Holy Spirit on cue at revivals.
Mind you, the only souls that ever needed saving were those of naughty children, not those of hypocritical adults. That alone is a testament to the contrived nature of Easter rituals.
Incidentally, evangelical Christians in America have become such lost souls, they make the lost Israelites of “Exodus” look like guardian angels.
It’s bad enough that these evangelicals have forsaken God to worship a gilded-tower demagogue. But they’re even denying their own kids healthcare to buy everything this MAGA grifter peddles — from gilded sneakers to fake Bibles.
In any event, you too might find that the only spirit moving you at Easter is the one beckoning you to the beach on Easter Monday. If so, fear not, God will not strike you down.
And all the people said, Amen.
Passion of the Christ
I get why people wallow in the macabre passions of this season. However, I suggest you watch Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ instead.
Because, more than any sermon or play, this movie will evoke the funereal emotions and convey — in refreshing and entertaining fashion — the expiatory significance of these familiar words:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
(The Holy Bible, John 3:16 KJV)
Of wrath and men
The elders of my church damned me to Hell long ago for being a “backsliding reprobate.” But that had more to do with the Pharisaic standards that govern conduct in most churches than with any unpardonable sin I may have committed.
Frankly, God’s Heavenly scroll will duly record that I am more spiritual, and live a more Christ-like life, than the Tartuffes who bored me to distraction with their sermons when I was a boy.
Besides, He made it abundantly clear: just abide by this “Golden Rule”:
Do to others as you would have others do to you.
(Mathew 7:12 KJV)
That’s all you need to make it into Heaven.