Ps. 116:5, NIRV
There are so many ways to ponder the mysteries that surrounds the great events of Holy Week, Jesus’ death, a Saturday of waiting, and then the triumph of Easter morning. Have you ever gone through your own symbolic death-resurrection experience that seemed (in a modest way) to recall Jesus’ experience of Good Friday through to Easter dawn? This has been called a paschal mystery experience. (Paschal refers to the paschal lamb of Passover, which has also become a symbol for Jesus; Ex. 12:1-28, 1 Pet.
A brief meditation reflects upon this experience [2] :
What good does it do to try to put
GRACE
into pale, earthly words?
GRACE must be tasted in poverty-made-glad
(in unexpected Easter-hope,
Christmas-hope, transfigured-hope).
And once it has been tasted
words are but
shadows to
tell !
This pattern of death carrying through to Easter-joy is, in the final
analysis, a foundational pattern upon the spiritual journey. Ultimately,
we all face death. However, God’s pattern is that we face death
through to resurrection. And, furthermore, it is a pattern we may
experience multiple times in our lives.
(In our last post we discussed this pattern in the lives of two great
souls: George Herbert and Simone Weil—using slightly different
terminology. We saw God coming to them in a sacred tenderness
and Grace that changed and revitalized their lives. [3])
In this post we will
follow the paschal mystery experience
as traced by Morton Kelsey, a counselor and Episcopalian clergyman. He had seen this pattern at work many times
in the lives of clients, parishioners, and also in his own personal experience. Kelsey, in turn, discusses this spiritual
pattern as seen in the life of Carl Jung (one of the three founders of
psychology as a science and the one founder who saw the depths of the soul and
the importance of the spiritual journey).
Kelsey also sees that this is a pattern we prayerfully experience with
Jesus: recalling Jesus’ own experience of Paschal
Mystery, which we remember in this Holy Week.
Kelsey begins
tracing this spiritual experience by talking about a dark
night of the soul that Jung experienced in midlife.[4] (Naturally,
we must
begin our discussion with the dark
side of this experience.) Sometimes
our
own experiences of grief, disappointment, lost-ness, etc. can feel like
something of a dark night. Jung did not run away from this dark night;
he turned his face to
it. Trying to discern what it meant for
his life, he
delved into it, journaled about it, etc. As he faced into the experience he
began to
feel that he was connecting with a new power and even
“obeying a higher will” (emphasis ours).”[5]
Kelsey comments:
Most of us flee from a mood that
upsets us. . . . Jung suggested that instead
of fleeing from the mood, we turn toward it and try to enter into it, try to
discover what it is saying to us. . . . [We] stay with it until we find
light. This takes courage and
persistence. . . . [W]e need to be like that importunate widow who kept after the
judge until she received justice [in Jesus’ parable, Lk. 18:1-8].
Jesus teaches us to keep at our task.
We have to make a decision
for light, love, and Christ.
Life does not bring one inevitably toward
light. Without our conscious decision to move toward
light and love,
our road usually ends in the pit [Ps. 103:4]. This truth is described in
the story of the
fall of Adam and Eve. . . . Something within
us needs
to seek for light and love [with our Divine Companion’s help]. There-
fore, when I enter into a mood, I am
going to stick with it until I find
light.
That is . . . [one] meaning of the cross. Jesus knew how to stick
it through until he found resurrection. He gives this hope to every
one of us.[6]
As a pastor,
Kelsey suggests that in such experiences we find someone who will stand with
us, who will help us seek the tender face of God and “the divine lover [or Holy
Spirit waiting] within.” “The church
has a critically important ministry in this area,” Kelsey says.[7] (One might seek out a pastor, spiritual
director, Stephen Minister, prayer partner, prayer or support group, counselor,
or simply an especially faithful friend.)
As we face into
our Good Friday experience we also need to be self-
reflective: examining
ourselves. In what ways am I deepening
my own
difficulties? Have I adequately
accepted the simple fact of my humanness
and my resulting need for God? (See Ps. 61:2) Must I face my own
unreflective
self-centeredness?[8] In
Christian terms I lay my difficulties
or self-centeredness or guilt at the base of the
cross and wait for the
Holy Spirit and God’s Eastering-power, re-NEWing power.
Why can we do
this? Kelsey reflects on “the reality of
God as love, with all the mystery that this implies.” He continues,
“And this is basically the message of the incarnation [Jesus taking our
flesh], the crucifixion, and the resurrection, as the unfailing, mysterious
love of God for miserable [hurting] people like you and me becomes one of us, dies
for us, and rises again.”[9]
As we process our
experience with God, we must not skip over Holy Saturday—a time of silence and
waiting between Good Friday and Easter.
As we wait—again with faithful “persistence” —we may faintly begin to
sense a hint of Grace at work. Kelsey calls this “the experience of being
picked up and rescued from the tangle of invading negativities into which we
sometimes fall.”[10] There’s
a new sense that “we can find help from beyond
ourselves to bring wholeness and restoration of mind and body (emphasis
ours).”[11]
Kelsey points out
that as a psychiatrist working with patients Carl Jung
had observed “the inner
healing force within the soul. . . . [This]
comes
amazingly close to the Christian view of the operation of the Holy
Spirit.”[12]
Kelsey shares one of his personal experiences
of this process. He
prayed “Lord, this
is where I am, torn, broken, fragmented.
Help!
Help! . . . [W]hat can you do with [me] . . . ?” [13]
And then, it was
as if he heard the inner voice of the Holy Spirit whispering: “Quiet, child, I
made you and I can remake you.”[14]
(Kelsey believes we are each meant to know a similar experience, if we will honestly process our dilemmas with God.)
Kelsey concludes
his report of his own dawning Easter experience by saying: “[Finally] I can feel His loving embrace, the embrace
of the creator, lover, transformer,
redeemer. I realize that He has carried
me again to the pool [of life] . . . from
which the spring flows.”[15]
In response
Kelsey prays: “Even though I am . . . egocentric . . . do You still love me, Lord? I do not understand why you continue to care
and help me when I call. I am not
worthy.”[16]
And then it is as
if the still small voice of the Holy
Spirit answers: “Child, who is to say how worthy anything is, but Me? I know your condition. I loved Peter, who denied me, and Paul, who
persecuted me [Lk. 22:34 , Acts
9:4]. . . . My love is forever. Rest in My love. Speak it forth.”[17]
And, finally,
Kelsey answers: “I’ll try. Please Lord,
pick me up again when I fall. Continue
with me.”[18]
Kelsey prays,
“Continue with me.” Indeed! For we will never outgrow our need for a God
who comes to us in hints of Grace—an Eastering, vivifying God, who can lift
us beyond ourselves with tender, dynamic,
renewing Love.
We would add one additional comment as we reflect on the process
Kelsey shares regarding paschal mystery. Always remember the last
word here: mystery. For we are indeed speaking of that which must
always remain something of a mystery on this side of "the veil." But
it is also a mystery addressed again and again in scripture--not in
blunt answers but instead in a life-giving process that we witness
repeatedly. It is this journey from death (including spiritual death
or near-death) to life! On this side of "the veil" we accept that some
things must remain, at least in part, a MYSTERY!
. . . . .
In the above
we’ve discussed a personal or subjective
meaning of
paschal mystery. We conclude our discussion by offering some favorite
thoughts in regard to a more objective
theological meaning of Jesus’
great Paschal
Mystery experience and his complete self-giving for us.
(Also see other posts that offer help in difficult or dark night
experiences.[19])
C. S. Lewis: “But
He [Jesus] goes down [death] to come up again and bring [us and] the ruined
world up with Him.”[20]
. . .
St. Catherine of Siena
. . .
William Barclay:
Jesus came to tell people of the
love of God; more, he was himself the incarnate love of God. If he had refused the cross or . . . had come down
from the cross, it would have meant that there was a limit to God’s love, that
there was something which that love was not prepared to suffer for men and women . . . a line beyond which it would not go.
But Jesus went the whole way and died on the cross, and this means that
there is literally no limit to God’s love, that there is nothing in all the
universe which that love is not prepared to suffer for us, that there is
nothing, not even death on a cross, which it will refuse to bear for us. . . . Jesus is saying to us, “God loves you like
that, with a love that is limitless, a love that will bear every suffering
earth has to offer.”[22]
* * *
Psalm 31:4-5:
“Keep me free from the trap [‘take me out of the net’] that
is set for me, for
you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit;
deliver me, LORD, my faithful
God.” (Jesus repeats the italicized
portion
on the cross.)[23]
* * *
St. Augustine: "He died, but he vanquished death; in himself, he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself, and he vanquished it; as a mighty hunter, he captured and slew the lion. Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer; but it did exist, and now it is dead" (Sermon 233).
* * *
We close with thoughts for meditation, prayer/poetry/proverbs (of paschal mystery):
“The Shepherd of Eternity (a Meditation)”
(With reflection upon 1 Pet. 2: 25, Isa. 40:11, Rev. 7:17, Ps. 23.)
“God told them, ‘I’ve never quit loving you and never will.
Expect love, love, and more love!’”; Jeremiah 31:3; MSG.
✮✶✬
(With reflection upon Lk. 24; 9:28-36; Eph. 3:21 [KJV]and wisdom from AA and other "Twelve Step" groups:
Let go ... let God.)
* * *
Julian
speaks of “again-making.” *
O, Lord, how
I need that now!
Frailness
pulls me down—worries, cares, anxieties.
(I know I shouldn’t let them,
but I am, oh, so human.)
I come to
You, the Tender Divine Lover—
needing an
“again-making.”
And then
(sooner or later)
Grace slips in—like David’s fine oil. **
I note with
simple joy that the sun is out.
Something hard inside me melts away.
Softly, like
a newborn babe,
I open . . .
again . . . my eyes.
*Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love [24]
** Ps. 23:5, 104:15, 109:18, 133:2, 141:5.
* * *
"Meditation upon the Butterfly"
(See prayers--above and below--for greater understanding,
including child-like humility.)
✮✶✬
"Creator, Lover, Transformer, Redeemer"; [25]
and who am I that YOU should come?—
to this weary bag of bones
to quicken me to life,
to childlike, Easter, transforming life,
to a springtime of the soul,
to walk with me in the cool of the night,
to lead me beside still waters,
renewing Easter-waters.
And here You have done it . . . again!
(With reflection upon Ezek. 37:3; Eph. 3:18-19; Mt. 18:2-4;
Gen. 3:8, Ps. 23:2. Regarding the symbolism of “Easter-waters”:
baptism at Easter dawn was common in the early church.)
✮✶✬
A meditation upon Luke 8:43-48 (the encounter between Jesus and
a woman, who for twelve years had suffered from hemorrhage--
place yourself in her shoes):
✮✶✬
Sn❆ w on Good Friday !
It is Fitting!
It falls in El ❅ quent Silence,
for who has adequate W ❆ rds?
❆ ❅ ❃
“Easter Saturday in S. Michigan”
I watch the lightning in the west
Leave the sky and touch the ground.
The white moon sails in the east.
The southern clouds are rosy round.
But from the west the wind comes up
To whip the giant poplar tree,
And thunder says the rosy sun
Has rowed itself on out to sea.
Still, where the dark clouds meet the south,
The gray overlaps the rosy red.
The sky swirls ’round a thousand signs.
By which of them should one be led?
But are they not all signs of truth?
Is earth not this mysterious place?
Does not the storm lap up the sun—
The sun, once more, the storm erase?
The clouds now whipped up overhead
Are scattering great drops of rain,
And still the south lies rosy red
And will not yield her quiet fame!
(With reflection upon Ps. 30:5: “Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning”; NRSV, NRSVCE.)
✮✶✬
(See additional blog posts after the “Notes” in “Older/Newer
Posts.”)
……………..
Notes:
1. See discussion of the divine “Companion”: "Traveling Companion--A Tender Image";
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2015/04/traveling-companion-tender-image_23.html
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2015/04/traveling-companion-tender-image_23.html
2. All meditations, prayers/poetry/proverbs in this post by Lorraine B. Eshleman.
(Note: there are two great redemption stories in the Bible. We often forget the first:
redemption from slavery in the Exodus. This type can include the slavery of
darkness in our lives. This meditation and post focus especially on this aspect.
Also for "poverty-made-glad" see Mt. 5:3-11.)
3. See our post: "Sacred Tenderness and Changed Lives";
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016_02_01_archive.html.
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016_02_01_archive.html.
4. Morton T. Kelsey, Christo-Psychology (New York: Crossroad, 1982), p. 13.
5. Ibid. (quoting C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections).
6. Kelsey, Christo-Psychology, p. 150.
7. Ibid., p. 141.
8. Ibid., p. 136.
9. Ibid., p. 101
10. Ibid., p. 30.
11. Ibid., p. 31.
12. Ibid., p. 26.
13. Ibid., p. 151.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., p. 152.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. See “The World’s Darkness, God’s Love & Julian of Norwich”; http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2015/11/ and
"God’s ‘Tender Mercies’ and the World’s (Our) Pain”;
and “The ‘Divine Romance,’ God’s Suffering, and God’s ‘Pathos’ (or ‘Wrath’?)”; http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2018/04/.
(Also see Note 3 above.)
20. C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York: Touchstone, 1996), p. 148.
21. Quoted in James Harpur, Love Burning in the Soul (Boston: New Seeds, 2005), p. 134.
22. William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark (Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 1975, 2001), pp. 422-423.
Knox Press, 1975, 2001), pp. 422-423.
23. NIV translation (emphasis added); insertion is NRSV, NRSVCE. Also see Lk. 23:46.
24. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace Warrack (London:
Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), p. 23 (Chap. 10), Long Text.
Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), p. 23 (Chap. 10), Long Text.
25. A phrase from Kelsey, Christo-Psychology, p. 151 (capitalization added).
