This reality strikes home again each year as I read the gospel narratives of the suffering of Jesus, and then those mysterious, ecstatic experiences of the risen Christ. Within the living of a lifetime we all come to know the emptiness and fullness of human existence. On the underside of heaven where we live, what the Good Friday story offers us is empathy with our suffering. Jesus has gone before us and shares with us fully in our suffering. What Easter offers is hope, which ever arises anew from the ashes of suffering.
Despair is never the last word.
The risen Christ comes to us, and leads us to newness of life. When we experience the joys of life, like the birth of children or grandchildren, it does not mean that the sorrows are over. In fact they may be just beginning. But Good Friday is balanced by Easter and Easter by Good Friday. Life is never all joy or all sorrow.