Monastic Mumblings, a Friar's Journey

Anselm 21 April 1109

For those of you who want a different way to remember St. Anselm...behold!

 

  I saw this on Ember Days, and felt I had to share. You can find this card here, but I prefer to remember Anselm in this prayer:

Almighty God, Who raised up Your servant Anselm to teach the Church of his day to understand its faith in Your eternal Being, perfect justice, and saving mercy: Provide Your Church in every age with devout and learned scholars and teachers, that we may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Pascha, the Sunday of the Resurrection

Easter Blessings! Christ our Lord is risen!

So often we hear these words, but do we see the sights? Easter is a visual event, we often forget. How did people seeing the miracle of the Resurrection for the first time react?  Never forget, they were the least powerful of their community, they were women.  Women steeped in Jewish culture and meaning, they KNEW the emblems of their faith.  What did they see when they arrived at the tomb?

As what I would consider THE pivotal event of Christianity, I would think it would be pretty clear in it's description in the Gospels, however it just isn't well defined. I suggest we begin by not taking the texts of the Gospels for granted, not assuming that we know what they say. The interesting indeterminate nature of these passages might then become less of a problem than a theological stimulus to find the meaning of the empty space we see in the tomb.

Archbishop Rowan Williams has written an essay called "Between the Cherubim: The Empty Tomb and the Empty Throne," and has suggested that imagery of the Ark of the Covenant might help us modern Christians understand early Jewish thought when confronted with the emptiness of Jesus' Tomb.

Hidden in the Holy of Holies or carried before advancing armies into battle, the Ark, in Hebrew Scriptures, marked the presence of God with an empty space — the space between the cherubim.

This is unique in the ancient world. The Ark was considered to be the throne, or the footstool containing of the tablets of the law, of an always invisible God.  This God was the only God Who must not be represented, Who cannot be possessed or contained, Who is where there appears to be nothing. 

In other words, the most sacred space where God was in the midst of the Hebrew people was empty. If you went to Jerusalem to visit God, what you came to visit wasn’t a golden idol, it was empty space--the holy absence and holy silence of the empty space between the cherubim. Because there was no gilded statue the Israelites were able to connect with the living presence of God in their lives. 

So, bringing us back to the Tomb of Christ, there, as told by Luke and John, when the Jewish women looked in, there are two angels, and John further states in 20:12 "and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet". 

So, they, who are used to the "God who dwells between the cherubim" suddenly see and know.. they KNOW Who Jesus really is, they see the imagery of the Ark, they know the empty space between the Angels in the Tomb is the evidence of the divinity of Jesus Christ -- the emptiness marking the presence of God in a way our modern minds forget.

Jesus is Risen, He is Lord and Christ!

Good Friday - all is lost...

What was it like? Standing back in the crowd, out of the direct eyesight of the Imperial Soldiers. Watching, waiting.

In a sense, all humanity stands there, we are the ones who like the impenitent criminal deserve to be up there, yet there He is. Beaten, wounded, still bleeding.  How can this Man even still be alive to even be on that horrible Cross?  There stands His Mother, ages of ages of humans will call her Blessed and ask her intercessions, but today her heart is pierced as surely as His hands and feet.  How can any parent watch their child die? It is an unspeakable pain, and to die in such a horrific way...

Why does this nightmare drag on, it has been hours since they put Him up there? Why isn't He cursing these dogs who put Him up there? How can He forgive them...?  I can't... I won't!

Then as darkness covers the land, and a chill blows on the wind, all the sorrows and transgressions of humanity fell upon Him, and as gentle as a dove, He said "It is finished" and breathed His last.

This for us disciples is the moment of ultimate disaster. What went wrong? The profound shock and despair is beyond words.  Wasn't God with this man? Yet, He sent no Legions of Angels to pull Him down from the Cross. Darkness covers the land, and all is lost.

Maundy Thursday

No greater Love...

Tonight is a night of endings and beginnings. What we started, the journey we began on Ash Wednesday will be competed here tonight. The journey we start tonight does not end until the Resurrection of Easter. In ancient times this time was called the Triduum, "The Three Sacred Days," which lead us to Easter: Maundy Thursday (with it's all night Vigil of the Blessed Sacrament), Good Friday, and Holy Saturday to prepare us for the Vigil of Easter.

Tonight as a bridge between Lent and the Triduum, we will see the theme of love, our Savior's  love for us. We will follow Him as He expressed that love in the washing of the disciples' feet, in giving Himself in bread and wine, in His dying upon the cross.

We will confess our sins, but unlike Ash Wednesday, the focus is on absolution. Forgiveness comes now "in the name and by the command of our Lord". In fact tonight we read of the new commandment, to "Love one another." On this, the very night of His betrayal, Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment: to love one another as He had loved them.

We say our prayers The Altar is made ready. The time of the Lord's Supper arrives, and our Lord is revealed in bread and wine as once He "revealed Himself to His disciples."  As much as we would like to, we can not linger at the Table, for His betrayal is upon us.

Before we know it, the effects of betrayal are played out before our eyes. The symbol of Christ in our midst, the Altar, is stripped bare.  The Gospel banners are removed from the Nave, the last ornaments removed from the Sanctuary, and the Reserved Sacrament removed from the Tabernacle.  Christ is stripped of His power and glory. He is taken from us, we are destitute and despairing, Good Friday is inescapable. The powers of darkness work upon Him.

We leave this place in silence, no benediction, no blessings, tonight our Salvation is wrought.

Almighty Father, Whose dear Son, on the night before He suffered, instituted the Sacrament of His Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, Who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and Who now lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.