Being present to grief

And if, as weeks go round, in the dark of the moon
my spirit darkens and goes out, and soft strange gloom
pervades my movements and my thoughts and words
then I shall know that I am walking still
with God, we are close together now the moon's in shadow.
Shadows, D H Lawrence

Pieta, Giovanni Bellini

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. Matthew 27:59-61

Divinity had embraced the fullness of human life, its weaknesses, its weariness, its suffering, besides sharing its joys and keeping obedience even to death. Raymond Chapman, Stations of the Cross

A full stop

Knowing how the Passion narrative pans out is an obstacle to empathising with Jesus's followers at this time.  They are not spared the emptiness of loss or witnessing the cruelties of a shameful and painful death of a loved one.

The lifeless body of Jesus is here laid out across a loving and forlorn lap.  It signals a full stop, an end, beyond which no amount of the disciples' imagination could pass.  For us, what does this once leaden body signify?  

Kathe Kollwitz, a German artist and sculptor, painted a picture of the dead Christ in the arms of his mother.  Tragedy, war and loss were recurring themes for her, and her work often featured a grief stricken mother with her dead son.  She lost her 18 year old boy Peter on the Belgian front after the outbreak of the First World War.  The last time she visited her 'Mother' sculpture a memorial to the fallen, she said of facing her: ' I stood before the woman, looked at her—my own face—and I wept and stroked her cheeks.'

Maybe Jesus here offers us, through his limp body, space for our grief, acknowledging and encouraging the need to be present to it.

Falling with us

He sets his face like flint and takes our place,
Staggers beneath the black weight of us all
And falls with us that he might break our fall.

Malcolm Guite, Sounding the seasons

Stations of the cross, number 9. Westminster cathedral How to make the Stations of the Cross - Westminster Cathedral

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him. John 19:16-18

Bent over, fallen

It’s been said that the most accurate picture of God is the vulnerable, crucified Jesus. That’s worth a ponder. Here Jesus is bent over, fallen. Is this posture a challenge, an affront? Does it connect with intimacy, compassion, recognition? What is my felt response? Here are some further thoughts by a few writers.

We can no longer see God in Jesus, this man who seems so frail, who stumbles and falls.Vatican, Station 3

May we be forgiven when we do not feel compassion for those who bear heavy burdens, physical or emotional, and fall beneath them.  Stations of the Cross, Raymond Chapman

And now he falls upon the stones that bruise
The flesh, that break and scrape the tender skin.
He and the earth he made were never closer,
Divinity and dust come face to face.
Malcolm Guite, Station III Jesus falls the first time. Sounding the Seasons; seventy Sonnets for the Christian Year, Canterbury Press 2012

A prayer

Jesus, walking towards death, be with us when our bodies fail at last.

Mutuality

I know a man of such
mildness and kindness it is trying to
change my life.

Mary Oliver, Thirst

Jesus washing Peters feet,1876, Ford Madox Brown

Jesus poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him...Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  John 13: 5,14

Turning the world upside down

The sight of the Word of God, the Son of God, washing his disciples’ feet, his friends, might render us speechless and our knees compromised.  This, we sense, is no empty, self-aggrandizing gesture but one intended to turn the disciples' world upside down.  Jesus gently sets about untangling the mess of hierarchy and worthiness issues by a posture.  This one gesture speaks volumes for his designs on human relations.

Imagine yourself in the disciple's place; both having your feet washed but seeing Jesus wash your colleagues, family and friends feet too.  How does it feel and what thoughts are thrown up by his action?

To protect and to gather

There is a great desire in his heart: a maternal desire to gather a family together. Stephen Cottrell

Hen with chicken, Niko Pirosmani

How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.  Matthew 23:37

There is a great desire in his heart: a maternal desire to gather a family together.  Jesus has become the embodiment of the God who is the eternal loving parent.  He is himself the Mother Hen, who wants only to protect and gather together her brood. Stephen Cottrell

Moving beyond the survival dance

In Stanley Spencer's imaginative depiction the curl of Jesus's body captures both the sense of protection and gathering.  It does not seem overbearing or intense. Parental longing together with wistfulness exude from him.

I wonder if 'father' and 'mother' remain only as titles, clouded by being theologically charged perhaps and possibly experientially confusing. Might this image move us beyond titles and into the open exploration of how I might allow Jesus to care for me/us as a mother does?  If so, what might that look like?  

Bill Plotkin writes about the movement in the second half  of life from the survival dance to thesacred dance.  Might this transition out of survival mode be helped by this sense of care and support - we are not alone. Does our desperate and initially necessary need for independence and automomy, to prove ourselves, ultimately if we are not careful become our achilles heel?

Zeal

At the heart of the Celtic tradition is a reverencing of Christ as 'Son of the elements'.  In his body and blood is the wildness of God.  With a passion of love he comes to bring 'fire to the earth'. J. Philip Newell

Expulsion of the money changers, Giotto

He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.  To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”  His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” John 2:15-17

In our religious traditions we have sought, almost exclusively, the gifts of peace and calm for our souls, while neglecting to seek the inner stirrings of creative wildness. J. Philip Newell, The book of creation

The wildness of God

Zeal is commended, and zeal is feared.  We are skeptical of it, yet also jealous for it.  When we read of Jesus wielding a whip, and cast our eyes at an image (such as Giotto's above) showing a flexed arm muscle and a posture of threatening intent what am I to do with it?

The passage and image maintain that God is wild.  The wind blows wherever it pleases...so it is with everyone born of the Spirit*. The wildness of God, like the elements, is part and parcel of the mystery of who God is - and who we are, notwithstanding our suppressions and exaggerations.  Jesus adds to his incendiary words a violent protest and pushes the religious authorities toward their tipping point.  For them things are getting out of hand.  How might I, though, allow this wild God the same breadth that Jesus claimed in his actions and beliefs?

*John 3:8

Humility

Tell me what it means to you to call him Lord.
Anthony de Mello

Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, Hippolyte Flandrin 1842

Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”  Matthew 21:5

Entitlement and humility

It feels like Jesus is making another poignant statement, a wordless gesture. His simple and understated entry has been described as a parody of the impressive entrances displayed by emperors and persons of note.  Jesus fully accepts and knows who he is and the crowd's body language echo that conviction. To and for this King, the throne, mitre and robes are a donkey and its foal, and his crown will be one of thorns. His prior instruction not to Lord it over one another* is reinforced by this personal, striking and authentic illustration.

The whole series of lenten gestures attempts to overturn popular, often unhelpful and, in some cases self-serving, notions of God and therefore for life.  The gestures visually underline his words and provide a memorable and meditative vehicle for those who would follow him.

*Luke 22, Mark10, Matthew 20 carried on by Paul and Peter in 2 Corinthians 1:24 and 1 Peter 5:3 respectively

Blessing

I bless you,
In the name of the Holy Three, the
Father, the Son and the Sacred Spirit
Celtic Daily Prayer

Jesus blesses the children, C Malcolm Powers

Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.  Matthew 19:13-15

Recovery

In this bronze sculpture we see mutual recognition, arms that mirror one another reciprocating warmth and affection.  Faces touch each other and smiles are large and unfiltered. Other children press their bodies close into Jesus.  

Inclusion for Jesus is a genuine and embodied reality and its propagation a mantra - this is no marginal vision statement or paper manifesto. Children are jealously welcomed, brought into the centre of action and attention.  The forgotten or lost part of us, the younger selves are drawn into his embrace and blessed.  Here we are invited to recover and be found. Here is an arm that wraps round us all and a smile like the arching tree that we can live under.