Reflection 15: Good Friday, The Dark Night of the Soul (part 1/2)
The Crucifixion, Fra Angelico, ca. 1420–23
Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Fra Angelico, ca. 1436-1440
Beloved Pilgrims,
Today we walk together through the sacred stillness of Good Friday, one of the most solemn and holy days in the Christian calendar. It is a day to pause, to feel, and to contemplate Love crucified, the moment when the Incarnation reaches its deepest descent. God enters fully into the anguish of the human experience out of love for a broken world.
This is Kenosis, the great self-emptying (Philippians 2:7). Jesus lays down not only His life, but His power, His protection, and even His sense of divine consolation. He embraces silence, abandonment, and death so that nothing in our lives remains untouched by redemptive love.
Good Friday is the silence of God, no miracles, no rescue, no voice from heaven. And yet, this silence is not absence, but a deep and purifying presence. It is the dark night of the soul. It touches each of us personally, and it speaks to the collective pain of our world. We are invited to release control and whisper:
“Into Your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)
Today we are invited to allow mystery to do its work.
To pray if the words come, or to simply be still.
You may sit with Scripture through Lectio Divina, or simply be present to whatever arises.
There is no assignment today.
Only space.
With love,
Swaady
The story
After the Last Supper, Jesus goes with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. In anguish, He cries out to the Father: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). Judas arrives with soldiers and betrays Jesus with a kiss. Jesus is arrested and the disciples scatter.
Jesus is brought before the high priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. “Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour, when darkness reigns.” (Luke 22:52-53). They seek false testimony and accuse Him of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God. He is mocked, spat upon, and beaten. As Jesus predicted, Peter denies knowing Him three times. After the rooster crows, Peter remembers and weeps bitterly.
The Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pontius Pilate, accusing Him of claiming to be a king. Pilate finds no guilt in Him and sends Him to Herod, who mocks Him and sends Him back. “Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.” (Luke 23:13-17). Despite knowing Jesus is innocent, Pilate, under pressure from the crowd, eventually gives in. It was customary to release a prisoner during Passover. Pilate offers the crowd a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, a known rebel and murderer. “Crucify Him!” they shout. (Mark 15:13)
Jesus is scourged, flogged with whips that tear the flesh. The soldiers place a crown of thorns on His head, mock Him with a purple robe, and kneel, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Jesus carries His cross through the streets of Jerusalem. On the way, Simon of Cyrene is compelled to help Him. Women of Jerusalem weep for Him, and He tells them: “Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Luke 23:28).
At Golgotha (“Place of the Skull”), Jesus is nailed to the cross between two criminals. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). The soldiers cast lots for His garments. Onlookers mock Him. One thief mocks, but the other repents: “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42). “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
Jesus entrusts His mother to John: “Woman, behold your son… Behold your mother.” (John 19:26–27). Darkness covers the land from noon to 3 p.m. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46 (Psalm 22)). Then Jesus cries out: “It is finished.” (John 19:30). “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” (Luke 23:46). He breathes His last. The temple veil is torn in two, the earth quakes, and many recognize something sacred has occurred. “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54).
Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, asks Pilate for Jesus’ body. He, with Nicodemus, wraps it in linen with spices and lays it in a new tomb carved from rock. A large stone is rolled in front of the entrance.
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The Passion of Christ is recounted in each of the synoptic gospels. You can click below to read each version:
Luke 22 and Luke 23
Note: The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called “synoptic”—from the Greek syn (“together”) and opsis (“seeing”)—because they can be “seen together” and compared side by side due to their striking similarities in structure, content, and wording. The Gospel of John is not synoptic. It tells the story of Jesus in a more theological and symbolic style.
On this sacred and solemn day, the world pauses at the foot of a Cross.
Good Friday invites us to stand in the mystery of suffering.
It is the day Jesus is crucified. He enters the dark night of the soul.
He is stripped, abandoned, betrayed, misunderstood.
He is pierced, humiliated, mocked, and left to die between two thieves.
But deeper than the physical agony is the mystery of spiritual desolation.
This is the night of the spirit, when all sense of God vanishes,
when the soul is emptied of every consolation,
and even love feels like absence.
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-47)
The dark night is a time of disorientation.
It is when spiritual light disappears.
It is when prayers feel empty and God feels far.
St. John of the Cross describes it as a necessary passage.
In it, the soul is being prepared for deeper union with God.
This happens through surrender, not through understanding.
On the cross, Jesus does not resist the darkness.
He surrenders to it.
He offers his life completely.
He trusts even when he cannot feel the presence of the Father.
This trust becomes the path to redemption.
This moment speaks to more than personal struggle.
It mirrors a larger story.
We live in a world that is also passing through its own dark night.
There is war, ecological crisis, displacement, deep inequality, and more.
Many people feel lost, uncertain, and exhausted.
Souls are aching for meaning in a culture built on consumption and noise.
The oppressed still carry their crosses.
And many feel forsaken, walking through a long dusk with no visible dawn.
Systems are breaking down.
Hope is difficult to hold.
Could it be… that this is our Good Friday?
Could it be… that we, like Christ, are being drawn into the divine silence,
not for abandonment but for transformation?
That our structures, our illusions, our certainties must fall
so that something truer, more radiant, might rise?
St. John of the Cross tells us that in the dark night,
God is not absent. God is closer than ever,
working in secret, in silence,
purifying, emptying, preparing the soul for union.
Good Friday reminds us that this pain is not ignored by God.
God does not save us from suffering,
God enters it.
It is part of the path that leads to something more whole.
Not by avoiding the darkness, but by walking through it.
Jesus shows us how to walk this path.
With honesty.
With prayer.
With surrender.
With love.
We stay with him at the cross.
We stay as those who know:
The tomb will not hold Him.
The dark night is not the end.
The silence will give birth to a new Word.
The resurrection is real.
It is coming.
But today we do not rush toward it.
Today we keep watch.
We let the silence speak.
We let the mystery unfold.
There is a holy work happening in the dark.
Even when we do not see it.
Even when we do not feel it.
Hope is alive.
