HE WHO HUNG AROUND

 

Have you ever wondered  why Jesus hung around so long after the Resurrection, appearing here and there?

Taking on our human nature, He knew how stressed out His family and followers must have been. They were in emotional and spiritual distress, so He  knew they  needed the comfort that was uniquely His to give.

So here we are on a lonely road to Emmaus, discussing the dreadful events that have recently befelled them, only to find a stranger overtaking them and asking where they were heading.

Great analogy for our own times, when our world, family, neighbors, community, and world have been besieged by a pandemic which has taken over our lives on so many levels, the least  of which is not the loss of Masses.

Jesus in His patience starts talking to the two, trying to bring forth from them their grief and suffering.  He goes home with them, then He  has a meal with them.  

And they knew Him in the breaking of the bread-  as we now know Him daily in the breaking of His Body  for us.

There is something about this story which has appealed to artists throughout the ages, especially in modern times.  There are more images of this scene than almost any in the New Testament. We certainly see our own fears and doubts, even when the Lord walks with us.

Yet we are better off than these travelers, as we know what happens on Easter-  and while we may not know the immediate future (do we ever?), all the predictions can’t give us hope, as that is only given to us by Jesus Himself in His Resurrection.  

Images:   Left- Patrick Dominguez

                Right- Arcabas

 

WHO IS ON THE ROAD

 

                                                                Father John Giuliani

When we hear the story of Jesus appearing to the two travelers on the way to Emmaus ( Luke 24:18) , we just presume they were two men.  But some Bible scholars have suggested that Cleopas’s fellow traveler was his wife, Mary.

Since this Mary was present at the Crucifixion and a witness of the empty tomb, why would she not be out and about with her husband.

They would have been in Jerusalem for Passover, so it makes sense that she would have traveled back home to Emmaus with her husband afterward.

The Passover came, and Mary and Cleopas observed it like good Jews. They certainly must have  waited in sadness, not knowing what was to happen. But we do know Mary went to the tomb to anoint the Body with the other women. Even though news spread that the tomb was empty, and the angel told the women that Jesus was resurrected, somehow this news must have escaped the couple.  For they are later found on the road, back home, sad and doubting all.

Amazingly enough, they do not recognize the man who has joined them is Jesus Himself.  What we ask?   Did they not recognize the man who they thought would lead their people, the promised Messiah?  

Well, Mary Magdalene was no better.  She who loved Jesus, took Him for a gardener.  Was Jesus so transformed that even those closest to Him did not recognize Him?  And one wonders did He go to His Mother first?  It is not recorded  but perhaps such an intimate moment was passed over. 

As incredulous as this story is, so often human nature is hard to comprehend.  How often have we been so caught up in our own misery that we cannot see the truth?  It takes faith to stay on the road, with the Lord, who we know walks with us!

Image: Rowan & Irene Le Compte, Natl. Cathedral  Wash. DC

THE GARDENER OF OUR HEARTS

 

                                                            

                                                           Br. Mickey McGrath, OSFS

A favorite theme  for the Easter season throughout the ages in art, is that of Mary Magdalene meeting the resurrected Jesus, mistaking Him for a gardener.  Of all the images, one wonders why this is so appealing?

The portrayal of Jesus as a gardener isn’t meant to suggest that Jesus was literally gardening that day, but rather, it alludes to His role as one who “plants” us and grows us. He gets His hands dirty in the soil of our hearts, bringing us to life and cultivating us with care so that we flourish.

 In a 2009 article for America magazine, Franco Mormando (US historian) writes,

“Mary’s misidentification was meant to remind us, so the pre-modern exegetes taught, of a spiritual reality: Jesus is the gardener of the human soul, eradicating evil, noxious vegetation and planting, as St. Gregory the Great says, “the flourishing seeds of virtue.”

Poem by the American poet Andrew Hudgins Christ the Gardener

The boxwoods planted in the park spelled LIVE.
I never noticed it until they died.
Before, the entwined green had smudged the word
unreadable. And when they take their own advice
again—come spring, come Easter—no one will know
a word is buried in the leaves. I love the way
that Mary thought her resurrected Lord
a gardener. It wasn’t just the broad-brimmed hat
and muddy robe that fooled her: He was that changed.
He looks across the unturned field, the riot
of unscythed grass, the smattering of wildflowers.
Before he can stop himself, he’s on his knees.
He roots up stubborn weeds, pinches the suckers,
deciding order here—what lives, what dies,
and how. But it goes deeper even than that.
His hands burn and his bare feet smolder. He longs
to lie down inside the long, dew-moist furrows
and press his pierced side and his broken forehead
into the dirt. But he’s already done it—
passed through one death and out the other side.
He laughs. He kicks his bright spade in the earth
and turns it over. Spring flashes by, then harvest.
Beneath his feet, seeds dance into the air.
They rise, and he, not noticing, ascends
on midair steppingstones of dandelion,
of milkweed, thistle, cattail, and goldenrod.

Images:  Left  Irene & Rowan LeCompte

        Resurrection Chapel   WA Natl. Cathedral    

Right:  David Jones,  British (d. 1974)

THE MYRRAHBEARERS

 

                                                  Viktoryia Kulvanouskaya- Belarus  1997

A Resurrection mystery we really do not celebrate in our Western tradition is that of the MYRRAHBEARERS. In the  Orthodox Christian tradition they are the people mentioned in the New Testament who were directly involved in the burial or who discovered the empty tomb following the resurrection of Jesus. The term traditionally refers to the women with myrrh who came to the tomb of Christ early in the morning to find it empty.

In Western Christianity, the two women at the tomb, the Three Marys (the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Salome)  or other variants are the terms normally used. The women followed Jesus during his earthly ministry in Galilee, providing for him and his followers out of their own means (Mark 15:41). They remained faithful to him even during the most dangerous time of his arrest and execution, and not only stood by the cross, but accompanied him to his burial, noticing where the tomb was located

Because of the impending Sabbath, it was necessary for the burial preparations to be brief. Jewish custom at the time dictated that mourners return to the tomb every day for three days. Once the Sabbath had passed, the women returned at the earliest possible moment, bringing myrrh to anoint the body. It was at this point that the Resurrection was revealed to them, and they were commissioned to go and tell the Apostles. They were, in effect, the apostles to the Apostles. For this reason, the myrrhbearing women, especially Mary Magdalene, are sometimes referred to as "Equal to the Apostles.

"The myrrh-bearing women forestalled the dawn, seeking, as it were day, the Sun that was before the sun and Who had once set in the tomb, and they cried out one to another: O friends! come, let us anoint with spices the life-bringing and buried Body, the Flesh that raised up fallen Adam, that now lieth in the tomb. Let us go, let us hasten, like the Magi, and let us worship and offer myrrh as a gift to Him Who is wrapped now not in swaddling clothes but in a shroud. And let us weep and cry aloud: O Master, arise, Thou Who dost grant to the fallen, resurrection. " (Ikos: Ancient hymn)

Some of the most striking art for this mystery is given to us by contemporary Eastern European artists.  Here are some of my favorites.  (To the right is "St. Joanna" by Sviatoslav Valadyka of the Ukraine.)         

  

The Divine Element—(God, Christ, the Holy Spirit)

Myrrh-Bearers

Margaret Junkin Preston (1820–1897)

THREE women crept at break of day   A-grope along the shadowy way   Where Joseph’s tomb and garden lay.       With blanch of woe each face was white,   As the gray Orient’s waxing light          Brought back upon their awe-struck sight       The sixth-day scene of anguish. Fast   The starkly standing cross they passed,   And, breathless, neared the gate at last.       Each on her throbbing bosom bore   A burden of such fragrant store   As never there had lain before.       Spices, the purest, richest, best,   That e’er the musky East possessed,   From Ind to Araby-the-Blest,       Had they with sorrow-riven hearts   Searched all Jerusalem’s costliest marts   In quest of,—nards whose pungent arts       Should the dead sepulchre imbue   With vital odors through and through:   ’T was all their love had leave to do!       Christ did not need their gifts; and yet   Did either Mary once regret   Her offering? Did Salome fret       Over the unused aloes? Nay!   They counted not as waste, that day,   What they had brought their Lord. The way       Home seemed the path to heaven. They bare,   Thenceforth, about the robes they ware   The clinging perfume everywhere.       So, ministering as erst did these,   Go women forth by twos and threes   (Unmindful of their morning ease),       Through tragic darkness, murk and dim,   Where’er they see the faintest rim,   Of promise,—all for sake of him       Who rose from Joseph’s tomb. They hold   It just such joy as those of old,   To tell the tale the Marys told.       Myrrh-bearers  still,—at home, abroad,   What paths have holy women trod,   Burdened with votive gifts for God,—       Rare gifts whose chiefest worth was priced   By this one thought, that all sufficed:   Their spices had been bruised for Christ!

 

Julia Stankova- Bulgaria

Nikola Saric- Serbia/ Germany

              
 

                                                                             

CHRIST ON THE CROSS

 

A crucifix (from Latin crucifixus meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is an image of Jesus on the cross, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the corpus (Latin for "body").

 The crucifix emphasizes Jesus' sacrifice—his death by crucifixion, which Christians believe brought about the redemption of mankind. Most crucifixes portray Jesus on a Latin cross, rather than any other shape, such as a Tau cross or a Coptic cross.

Western crucifixes usually have a three-dimensional corpus, but in Eastern Orthodoxy Jesus' body is normally painted on the cross, or in low relief. Strictly speaking, to be a crucifix, the cross must be three-dimensional, but this distinction is not always observed.

Large crucifixes high across the central axis of a church are known by the Old English term rood. By the late Middle Ages these were a near-universal feature of Western churches, but are now very rare. Modern Roman Catholic churches and many Lutheran churches often have a crucifix above the altar on the wall.

In the early Church, many Christians hung a cross on the eastern wall of their house in order to indicate the eastward direction of prayer. 

The sign of the cross was not considered a glorification of suffering but a “sign of victory” (tropaion) in the sense of the ancient triumphal sign that was set up at the place where the victorious turning point of the battle took place. The cross was likewise considered the “dread of the demons,” since as a victory sign it struck terror into the ruling demonic powers of the world.

Before the time of the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Christians were extremely reticent about portraying the cross because too open a display of it might expose them to ridicule or danger. 

After Constantine converted to Christianity, he abolished crucifixion as a death penalty and promoted, as symbols of the Christian faith, both the cross and the chi-rho monogram of the name of Christ. The symbols became immensely popular in Christian art and funerary monuments from c. 350.

For several centuries after Constantine, Christian devotion to the cross centered on the victory of Christ over the powers of evil and death, and realistic portrayal of his suffering was avoided. The earliest crucifixes  depict Jesus alive, with eyes open and arms extended, his Godhead manifest, even though He is pierced and dead in His manhood. 

By the 9th century, however, artists began to stress the realistic aspects of His suffering and death. 

During the Middle Ages small crucifixes, generally hung on a wall, became normal in the personal cells or living quarters first of monks, then all clergy, followed by the homes of the laity, spreading down from the top of society as these became cheap enough for the average person to afford.Most towns had a large crucifix erected as a monument, or some other shrine at the crossroads of the town.

Subsequently, Western portrayals of the Crucifixion, whether painted or carved, exhibited an increasing finesse in the suggestion of pain and agony. Romanesque crucifixes often show a royal crown upon Christ’s head, but later Gothic types replaced it with a crown of thorns. In the 20th century a new emphasis emerged in Roman Catholicism, especially for crucifixes in liturgical settings. Christ on the cross is crowned and vested as a king and priest, and the marks of his suffering are much less prominent.

Every nation, past and present has their own version of the crucifix.  On this holiest of days,  I present some of my favorite- all from Africa.

IMAGES:

Top  left-  Senufo- W. Africa (Ivory Coast)

Right -      Kongo/Zaire- 18-19th  C.  Wood & brass

Left -        Makonde  -  E. Africa

Right-       E. Africa -  2^nd half 20^th C. Bronze

PIETA

 

When most of us hear the word PIETA, we think of Michelangelo’s famous image in St. Peter’s Basicila at the Vatican. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful works of art I encountered in my two years living in Europe. But there are many lovely replicas which can be just as powerful- especially in modern times.

The Pietà is one of the three primary representations of the Virgin Mary in sorrow; along with the Stabat Mater (stands the mother) and the Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows). These representations were prevalent in Christian iconography from the thirteenth century onwards – in painting, sculpture and musical compositions as in the case of the Stabat Mater.

 A pietà  ("piety", "compassion")  depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ. When Christ and the Virgin are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament, the subject is strictly called a lamentation in English, although pietà is often used for this as well, and is the normal term in Italian.

The pietà developed in Germany (where it is called the "Vesperbild") about 1300, reached Italy about 1400, and was especially popular in Central European Andachtsbilder.  (Remember this word from past Blogs?  devotional images designed as aids for prayer or contemplation.)

Many German and Polish 15th-century examples in wood greatly emphasize Christ's wounds. The Deposition of Christ and the Lamentation or Pietà form the 13th of the Stations of the Cross, as well as one of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin.

Early Pietàs often made Christ’s body much smaller than the Virgin Mary’s, signifying the idea of the mother holding her dead child in her arms. His wounds were also very prominent in such works, to reinforce the suffering He endured on the cross.

Although the pietà most often shows the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, there are other compositions, including those where God the Father participates in holding Jesus (see gallery below). In Spain the Virgin often holds up one or both hands, sometimes with Christ's body slumped to the floor.

One of my favorites- though so many modern works of the pieta show great pathos, certainly  to peoples who have suffered from war and privation of freedom - is by Wiktoria Gorynska, a Polish artist, who painted this in 1929.  For me it represents the  stripped uniform we see in photographs of the prisoners of war released in WWII.  It is as if our Mother takes  one of them into her grieving arms.

"I took my tender Child on my lap and looked at Him, but He was dead: I looked at Him again and again and could have shattered into a thousand pieces from those mortal wounds it received. It gave many bottomless sighs: the eyes shed many heartbroken bitter tears, my appearance became utterly miserable.”

                         Heinrich Suso, The Exemplar (1295 — 1366)

  IMAGES:

            Top -  Antanos Kmieliaush, Lithuania  

                                1990

            Left -  Krishen Khanna – India

            Rt.  -  Bogdon Cierpisz -  Poland   1980

            Left-   Gloria Todd Jones  American  1990

            Rt.     Wiktoria Gorynska Poland  1929

            Left. - Jan Karan-  Czech Rep.  1995  

            Rt.   -  Wladystaw Skoczylas - Poland  1934

 

“

THE MUSIC OF WORDS

 

Good Friday this year happens to also be  International Children's Book Day (ICBD), which is a yearly event sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People. 

Founded in 1967, the day is observed on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, April 2.  Activities include writing competitions, announcements of book awards and events with authors of children's literature.

Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster. These materials are used in different ways to promote books and reading.

Many IBBY Sections promote ICBD through the media and organize activities in schools and public libraries. Often ICBD is linked to celebrations around children's books and other special events that may include encounters with authors and illustrators, writing competitions or announcements of book awards.  As far as I am concerned, we can’t do enough in the age of technology, to promote reading among our young.

This year's theme is  THE MUSIC OF WORDS.  The illustrator of this year's poster is by Roger Mello, a Brazilian artist.  The author chosen is Cuban-American writer Margarita Engle.

Our small Shaw Island Library has the most fabulous children’s room, which most adults here can’t pass up as they head for the back room filled with non-fiction.  I envy children today the amount of incredible, amazing and fun-filled books available, especially those which are illustrated with wondrous colorful images.  And sometimes, more often than not, we too take books from the children!