The Altars are stripped, the Passion said or sung with all its harrowing detail and Christ lies in the tomb. It seems as though darkness has won leaving Hell triumphant, but Satan's own wickedness and that of the people he drove is the making of Hell's utter defeat. Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881-1944) offers us this:
It is out of that uttermost gloom of My God, my God, why have you forsaken me that the light breaks. The light does not merely shine upon the gloom and so dispel it; it is the gloom itself transformed into light. For that same crucifixion of our Lord which was, and for ever is, the utmost effort of evil, is itself the means by which God conquers evil and unites us to himself in the redeeming love there manifested.
Judas and Caiaphas and Pilate have set themselves in their several ways to oppose and to crush the purpose of Christ, and yet despite themselves they became ministers. They sent Christ to the cross; by the cross he completed his atoning work; from the cross he reigns over mankind. God in Christ has not merely defeated evil, but has made it the occasion of his own supremest glory.
Never was conquest so complete; never was triumph so stupendous. The completeness of the victory is due to the completeness of the evil over which it was won. It is the very darkness which enshrouds the cross that makes so glorious the light proceeding from it. Had there been no despair, no sense of desolation and defeat, but merely the onward march of irresistible power to the achievement of its end, evil might have been beaten, but not bound in captivity forever. God in Christ endured defeat, and out of the very stuff of defeat he wrought his victory and his achievement.
It is the very darkness which enshrouds the cross that makes so glorious the light proceeding from it. And what glorious light it is, the unconquerable light of God Himself who turns complete evil to supreme good and death to life.
Do not, ever, surrender, but stand firm in the Faith, confident in the victory won on the cross.
God bless you all,
LSP
