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# Have a Good Friday
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/have-a-good-friday/
- Published: 2008-03-21T12:00:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-20T21:18:05.000Z
- Description: Have a Good Friday
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Keith E. Buhler, Poetry

![Crucifixus Est](https://static.hsstatic.net/BlogImporterAssetsUI/ex/missing-image.png "Crucifixus Est")

TS Eliot, from Four Quartets:

"The wounded surgeon plies the steel  
That quesions the distempered part;  
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel  
The sharp compassion of the healer's art  
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease  
If we obey the dying nurse  
Whose constant care is not to please  
But to remind us of our, and Adam's curse,  
And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital  
Endowed by the ruined millionaire,  
Wherein, if we do well, we shall  
Die of the absolute paternal care  
That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,  
The fever sings in mental wires.  
If to be warmed, then I must freeze  
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires  
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,  
The bloody flesh our only food:  
In spite of which we like to think  
That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood-  
Again, in spite of that, we call this [Friday good."](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-9gcauuboc&ref=mereorthodoxy.com)