In recent years, Good Friday has become increasingly more like any other Friday at the beginning of a long holiday weekend. Gone are many of the social and legal restrictions on business, shopping and entertainment. But for many the Cross, with its broken body of Christ, continues to be an enriching image of their faith and their hope. For many, the Cross symbolises self-giving and sacrificial love; and the empty Cross continues to be a sign of hope and resurrection in a world that continues to struggle with violence, oppression and poverty.
But the Body of Christ is also a symbol when speaking of the unity of Christian believers, the invisible unity of the Church. In recent months, the unity of that Body of Christ has been damaged as the churches and denominations tore themselves away from one another. Just as theologians and ecumenists were expressing concern that the ecumenical movement was losing momentum and were speaking gloomily of an "ecumenical winter", the cold winds of that winter began to rage. Its bitterness was felt in the response to President McAleese's decision to receive Holy Communion in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the publication of Dominus Iesus, a new directive from the Vatican on intercommunion, and in the reaction to Cardinal Connell's interview, in which he criticised the Church of Ireland's open invitation to other Christians attending the Eucharist.
In the breaking of bread, the Body of Christ was visibly broken. A sacrament that should be a sign of unity became the most visible expression of disunity. For many, the argument was a scandal in the Pauline meaning of a stumbling block to belief, and it appeared petty and irrelevant, bordering on the ridiculous while millions die from war, famine, poverty and oppression. But just as Good Friday is followed by Easter, and the Cross leads to Resurrection, ecumenical winters must be followed by springs of hope. In the present cold climate, many are trying to find a way forward. In the current issue of the Furrow, the missionary priest and theologian, Donal Dorr, offers a challenging way out of the present morass.
Whenever imposed rules are easily flouted by conscientious believers, he says, the credibility of the Church is damaged. But he points out that rules about sharing in the worship of different branches of the Church have changed over the years: gone are the days when Catholics were prohibited from taking any part in Anglican or Protestant worship or services. Gone too are the days when it could be presumed that all Catholics attending Mass and receiving Communion accepted everything taught by their Church.
Father Dorr sees the Eucharist as representing the unity of the Christian community, but also emphasises its missionary nature. In a broken world, those who suffer and are oppressed have no time for the arguments about minor details at a time when they need to experience the reality of Good Friday becoming Easter Sunday. On this Good Friday, we can be thankful for theologians like Father Dorr who try to see a way out of a dead-end debate and seek new life for a Church that needs to redefine its mission in a world of suffering.