Wednesday, April 1, 2020

May he be untied and let go (Fr. James Martin on David Bowie's Lazarus)


Just before he died, in January 2016, David Bowie released a song called Lazarus.  Fr. James Martin's reflection on the song and the video, published on Facebook the day after Bowie's death, goes right to the heart of the story in John's Gospel:

  In his video, David Bowie, who, like Lazarus, is bandaged, sings, Look up here, I’m in heaven. I’ve got scars that can’t be seen.  I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen.  Everybody knows me now.  In the first part of the video, Bowie writhes in his bandages in a hospital bed; in the second part, another Bowie stands and dances, freed from his bandages, in the same room.  At the close of the video he enters into a dark closet.

  [The video] is a complex image of life, death and the afterlife… On the one hand, one will indeed enter into God’s presence carrying with us all the drama of our lives.  One will also be welcomed into the presence of those who know us, and into a place where we will be known fully, by God. And one will be freed of the limitations of physical pain and of the confining bandages of our existence.

  On the other hand, the scars, I believe, will be seen by those in heaven, God included.  For nothing is lost to God.  We are welcomed, scars and all.  Remember that when Jesus returns from the dead he shows his disciples his physical wounds, his scars. The Risen One carries in himself, and on himself, the experiences, visible and invisible, of his humanity.

  At the close of the video, Bowie recedes into a dark closet.  It’s a reverse image of conclusion of the story of Lazarus, who, in the Gospels emerges from a dark tomb into the light…

  It’s not surprising that someone would struggle with issues of illness, death and the afterlife.  Even believers do.  And I’m not sure what Bowie’s religious or spiritual beliefs were.  But it’s a gift when an artist shares himself or herself with the world in so personal and creative a way, particularly in the midst of the final struggle.

  Oh, I’ll be free / Just like that bluebird, he sings, Oh, I’ll be free / Ain’t that just like me?

  As an artist, David Bowie always confounded expectations.  Perhaps, like most of us, he struggled with a God who confounded him near the end.  Now may that same God surprise him.  With new life.

  May he be untied and let go.

--Fr. James Martin, Facebook, January 12, 2016

To watch David Bowie’s video of the song Lazarus, click on the video below:


Image source:  Earliest known depiction of Lazarus in the Callistus Catacombs, Rome, 3rd century AD, http://cojs.org/earliest-known-depiction-of-lazarus-callistus-catacombs-rome-3rd-century-ce/

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