Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his parents, Easter Day, 25 April 1943
Amazing that in the circumstances Bonhoeffer found himself he not only found comfort for himself but comforted others through the message of the cross.
Good Friday and Easter—the days of God’s overpowering acts in history, acts in which God’s judgment and grace were revealed to all the world—are just around the corner. Judgment in those hours in which Jesus Christ, our Lord, hung on the cross; grace in that hour in which death was swallowed up in victory. It was not human beings who accomplished anything here; no, God alone did it. He came to human beings in infinite love. He judged what is human. and He granted grace beyond any merit.
Mission Accomplished. Not by us in any way but by God, in God, and through God.
