Ps. 116:5, NIRV
In a previous season, we shared these lines about tender Love coming to us: lines that look forward to Holy Week,
Good Friday, and Easter--just as well as Christmas:
“LOVE came down to you; LOVE came down to me--LOVE burst the
seams of heaven . . . entered hiddenly . . . took a shabby, stable bed ...
in the fragile flesh of a Babe: . . . in the humble flesh of you . . . in the
frail flesh of me . . . bone of our bone, at last . . . flesh of our flesh--
LOVE came down!” [1]
In the present
season, as we ponder Lenten themes and look to Holy Week and Good Friday,
we will see this “fragile flesh” tragically abused, pierced, torn, and breathing
its last exquisite breath. Yet God knits
it together perfectly again. However,
there is an exception: wounds that remain on his hands and feet--reminding us
that LOVE came down to willingly be
wounded for us; Love that through
such wounds would, mysteriously, make us whole again (2 Cor. 5:19). And then God . . . on the third day--Easter (the most amazing day this world has ever known!)--caused LOVE indeed to burst forth from the
tomb.
But let’s go back
to the beginning—to this One who burst the “seams of heaven” and yet was “flesh of our flesh”: this Jesus, the Son
of God, who walked the earth doing good and spreading Love. He healed the
broken-hearted and healed broken flesh as well.[2] He fed the hungry and loved those that the
society of the day liked to call sinners and outcasts.[3] When persons felt burdened by a load of sin, he
gladly set them free. He told them he
had the power to forgive sins and would happily do it if only they were truly, humbly honest with him and themselves.
He taught and healed in open fields and
humble villages, often pressed by great crowds.
Sometimes his earthly bones must have ached with tiredness: walking
those dusty roads to welcome, teach, heal, forgive, set free, make whole, and weep
for/with their [our] sorrows.[4]
But he kept it up—never complaining, although at times he did make
honest statements such as: the Son of Man
has no place [of his own] to lay his head. [5]
Meanwhile he
also scolded the haughty who tried to keep the
power--even the power of
religion--in their own hands; power only
truly found in the now famous words Let go; let God! [6]
He told
the power guys that they were the ones with real poverty of soul--
they were way off base.
And they hated him for telling the truth and
upsetting their
powerful apple-cart of
picky rules that made them look like big-
shots
and made others look small and “unclean.”
They plotted
against him and deluded themselves into thinking that what they
were doing was right. They schemed, captured him, had him
arrested,
and made sure he was put to death: he who had never
harmed anyone!--who had
lived Love, truth (even when the
truth hurt), healing, Grace, forgiveness, and renewal.
This One was
falsely accused, spat upon, whipped, despised, and finally put upon rugged
poles to die. And every step of the way he did it with a heroism, amazing Grace, gentleness, tender Love, and forgiveness that could only be of God. Yes, he indeed died and was placed in a
silent grave—for his body to decay and his Love and truth to be heard from no more. But he “burst back in sun and clouds and
joy—undaunted, persisting, longing, compelling; [One] Who Loved and Loved and Loved again until I had no alternative but to love
. . . return! . . .”:
“This Most-Amazing-You (a prayer)”
And Julian of Norwich tell us that even
“if there were no . . .
soul on earth except one, he [Jesus] would be with it, all
alone
[doing all the above/below], until he had brought it up into his
bliss.” [7]
"Good Friday AND God 'With Us' (a Lenten meditation)"
(With reflection upon Mt. 1:23, 27:32-50, 28:20; Jn. 20:25-29; and especially Lk. 24:13-35.)
“The One of Wounded Hands (Meditating with Thomas and Mary)”
Oh Wounded Hands, stretched out to me,
Where have I been so long?
This look that I cannot deny,
And yet, to Thomas I belong.
Oh Wounded Hands, Oh Out-stretched Arms,
Can I yield now to You?
Can I surrender Thomas-ways?—
Know the encounter Mary knew? [8]
(With reflection upon Jn. 20:11-29: stories of the post-Easter
encounters of doubting Thomas and grief-stricken Mary Magdalene
with the One of Wounded Hands.)
Prayer to a “Easter-ing” God:
Great . . . Generous . . .
Gift-giving . . .
Revitalizing . . . “Among-us ” God:
Renewing, “Greening,”
Revivifying,
God of Christmas-hope,
Easter-hope,
Transfiguration-hope,
Damascus-road-encounter!
God of vision and ecstasy,
the God of the
“Other World”
if but ‘the veil ’ is drawn.
Lift ‘the veil ’ briefly--
we pray--
for just one tiny peek . . .
till at last we really see!
“Two worlds are ours . . .” - John Keble
“I saw heaven standing open . . .”; Rev. 19:11 (also see
Acts 7:55-56, 9:1-7; Lk. 9:28-36).
(And recalling St. Hildegard of Bingen’s expression “viriditas”:
God’s "greening" power alive and active in our lives and
world.)
“The Shepherd in my Distress” (an imaginative meditation upon
scripture, as suggested in spiritual classics [9] )
(With reflection upon Mark 5:41, where in a crisis Jesus fondly
addresses a “young woman” as “Talitha cumi” in Arabic. Also see
Lk. 15:3-7, Ps. 46:10, Ex. 3:14, and Isa. 40:11, NJB, NIV, WEB. )
Julian of Norwich: “I saw that [God] ... is to us everything that
is good and comfortable for us ... [like] our clothing that for love
wrappeth us, claspeth us, and all encloseth us for tender love, that
He may never leave us; being to us all-thing that is good ...”;
Revelations of Divine Love. [10]
Meditating upon Julian of Norwich’s thought as she explains some of
Jesus’ “intimate” connections to us[11]:
“And in
the
Taking of our
nature
He quickened us; in His blessed dying upon the Cross He bare us
to endless life; and from that time, and
now, and ever-
more unto
Doomsday,
He feedeth
us and
furthereth
us … [ in ]
sovereign
Kindness
. . . [ to a ]
NEW
beginning [which]
shall last
without end;
[‘Eternal’ !]
NEW Beginning” … “WORLD WITHOUT END”!
(See Jesus' beautiful words in Matthew 28:20 in regard to Julian's
comment about such LOVE lasting even "unto Doomsday"
[terminology from her times]. Also reflecting here on 2 Cor. 5:17;
Rom. 1:17, 8:32; Jn. 6:35; Eph. 3:21.)
♥ ♥ ♥
(See additional blog posts after the “Notes” in Newer/Older Posts.)
..............................
Notes:
(also see Lk. 2, Gen. 2:23 & Christina Rossetti’s poem “Love Came Down at
Christmas.”)
2. Lk. 4:18, 7:22, NKJV; Acts 10:38.
3. Lk. 7:34.
4. Jn. 11:33, 35; Lk. 19:41 (also see Note 2 above).
5. Lk. 9:58.
6. As AA and other recovery groups--Twelve Step groups--have so wisely
taught us in recent years.
7. Julian of Norwich: Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and James
Walsh, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 336.
8. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman.
9. For example, see this kind of meditations described in "Why Christmas?
Why Christ?" and Note 14 there;
10. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace Warrack
(London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), p. 10 (Chap. 5, Long Text).
11. Ibid., pp. 158-159 (Chap. 63). Also Julian of Norwich, Revelations of
Divine Love, ed. Clifton Wolters (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1966),
p. 203 (Chap. 79), p. 171 (Chap. 61), p. 100 (Chap. 24). Capitals and italics
added throughout.
Great Easter poetry and thought here.
ReplyDeleteThis is going in my Easter file.
ReplyDeleteI love the "bone of my bone..." illustration, which I've never used previously except for marriage themes.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who has trouble looking forward to Lent & Good Friday. I always want it to pass quickly to get to Easter!
ReplyDeleteYes, we've often felt that way also. Thankfully, Jesus is beyond time now, so we can do both at once!
ReplyDeleteShould have mentioned in last comment that Luther said Jesus can be in the Virgin Mary's womb and on the cross at one and the same time; i.e., He is beyond time!
ReplyDelete