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# A poem for Good Friday
- URL: https://joshualore.com/inthemiddleway/a-poem-for-good-friday-he-told-us-we-were-free/
- Published: 2016-03-25T20:09:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-03T04:18:54.000Z
- Author: Joshua Lore
- Tags: Uncategorized, Auden, Calvary, Catholic, christ, christianity, Crucifixion, Good Friday, poetry, #Migrated-1788408094757, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-03 00:01

> ‘He told us we were free to choose  
> But, children as we were, we thought—  
> “Paternal Love will only use  
> Force in the last resort  
>  
> On those too bumptious to repent.”  
> Accustomed to religious dread,  
> It never crossed our minds He meant  
> Exactly what He said.  
>  
> Perhaps He frowns, perhaps He grieves,  
> But it seems idle to discuss  
> If anger or compassion leaves  
> The bigger bangs to us.  
>  
> What reverence is rightly paid  
> To a Divinity so odd  
> He lets the Adam whom He made  
> Perform the Acts of God?  
>  
> It might be jolly if we felt  
> Awe at this Universal Man  
> (When kings were local, people knelt);  
> Some try to, but who can?  
>  
> The self-observed observing Mind  
> We meet when we observe at all  
> Is not alarming or unkind  
> But utterly banal.  
>  
> Though instruments at Its command  
> Make wish and counterwish come true,  
> It clearly cannot understand  
> What It can clearly do.  
>  
> Since the analogies are rot  
> Our senses based belief upon,  
> We have no means of learning what  
> Is really going on,  
>  
> And must put up with having learned  
> All proofs or disproofs that we tender  
> Of His existence are returned  
> Unopened to the sender.  
>  
> Now, did He really break the seal  
> And rise again? We dare not say;  
> But conscious unbelievers feel  
> Quite sure of Judgement Day.  
>  
> Meanwhile, a silence on the cross,  
> As dead as we shall ever be,  
> Speaks of some total gain or loss,  
> And you and I are free  
>  
> To guess from the insulted face  
> Just what Appearances He saves  
> By suffering in a public place  
> A death reserved for slaves.’  

—W.H. Auden, ‘Friday’s Child’ (image: *Ecce Homo*, by [Michael O’Brien](http://www.studiobrien.com/?ref=joshualore.com))