Good Friday

I'm pondering, this morning, on Good Friday. As a Latter-day Saint, we celebrate Easter with the rest of the Christian world, but we don't really celebrate Good Friday. (Okay--really, in all honesty--I didn't even know that Good Friday really existed or was a big deal until I moved to the East Coast. I believe that it to try and help us focus whole heartedly on the glory of the resurrection of the Savior, which is also the reason that I believe we don't wear symbols of the cross. ) In any case, this year I decided that I wanted to put more thought into this day, because it does have a significant meaning for me. I want to draw closer to the Savior, and I've decided to set out to do that this weekend.

As I studied this morning, I came across a talk from the late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles called "Sunday Will Come" and I love his words:

I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross.
On that terrible Friday the earth shook and grew dark. Frightful storms lashed at the earth.
Those evil men who sought His life rejoiced. Now that Jesus was no more, surely those who followed Him would disperse. On that day they stood triumphant.
On that day the veil of the temple was rent in twain.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were both overcome with grief and despair. The superb man they had loved and honored hung lifeless upon the cross.
On that Friday the Apostles were devastated. Jesus, their Savior—the man who had walked on water and raised the dead—was Himself at the mercy of wicked men. They watched helplessly as He was overcome by His enemies.
On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled.
It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God.
I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.

But the doom of that day did not endure.
The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.
And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.
Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.
No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

I was so touched by Elder Wirthlin's comments, and the imagery he uses. Because I have had my moments of sorrow, even if they were brief in a lifetime of sunshine. But I have known some days when I knew I just could not go on myself, and I have been carried by my faith, my family, and my friends. I have even known my share of spiritual temper tantrums, when I was mentally shaking my fist at the heavens and the only prayers I could utter was of my utter confusion and anger at a plan that I don't always comprehend. Heavenly Father really is patient. And I've been amazed at how, almost always sooner than I think possible, "Sunday" has come.