An active waiting (Fr. James Martin)

   Finally, there is the wait of the Christian, which is called hope. It is an active waiting; it knows that, even in the worst of situations, even in the darkest times, God is at work. Even if we can’t see it clearly right now. The disciples’ fear was understandable, but we, who know how the story turned out, who know that Jesus will rise from the dead, who know that God is with us, who know that nothing will be impossible for God, are called to wait in faithful hope. And to look carefully for signs of the new life that are always right around the corner—just like they were on Holy Saturday…

--Fr. James Martin, We Live in Holy Saturday 

Image source: https://www.crosswalk.com/special-coverage/easter/what-happened-on-holy-saturday.html

O Jesus, rise in me (Christina Rossetti)

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
 Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall – the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.

--Christina Rossetti, A Better Resurrection              

Image source: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Damsel of the Sanct Grael (1874), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail#/media/File:Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_Damsel_of_the_Sanct_Grael_(1874).jpg

A heart broken by us and for us (Henri Nouwen)

   Thank you, Jesus, for the mystery of your broken heart, a heart broken by us and for us, that has now become the source of forgiveness and new life. The blood and water flowing from your side show me the new life that is given to me through your death. It is a life of intimate communion with you and your Father. But it is also a life that calls me to give all that I am in the service of your love for the world. It is a life of joy, but also of sacrifice. It is a glorious life, but also one of suffering. It is a life of peace, but also of struggle. Yes, Lord, it is a life of water and blood, but no longer water and blood that destroy, but water and blood that come from your heart and so bring reconciliation and peace… May our hearts be one so that the world may recognize that it is you who sent me, not to condemn, but to offer your heart to all who search for love. 

--Henri Nouwen, Heart Speaks to Heart 

Image source: Giotto di Bondone, Crucifix (detail; ca. 1290-1300), gold and tempera on panel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giotto/crucifix.htm

S'una sol lagrima (Zelenka/Orlinski)

If every penitent heart

would render me but one repentant tear,

how contented would I die!

If every loving soul in man contrite

would render me but one sign of love,

then all the heavy grief that grips my heart

would melt away.

The original text by composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in Italian:

S’una sol lagrima di pentimento

mi desser tutti di cor pentito,

quanto contento io morirei !

Se amante aogni anima nell’uom contrito

mi desse un solo segno d’amore,

Tutto il gran duolo che m’ange il core

sciolto vedrei.

--Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745),

Aria di Gesù al Calvario

This aria, performed by Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orlinski, imagines Christ in the midst of the Passion on the Cross, praying for a response from those for whom he has sacrificed his life.  Its quiet and beautiful repetition, punctuated by acute string accents, makes for a fitting meditation for Good Friday afternoon. To hear it, click on the video below.  To purchase Orlinski’s remarkable CD Anima Sacra, click here.

 

Image source: Zachary Roesemann, Franciscan Cross.  To read the artist's reflections on this piece:  
https://www.holytrinity-nyc.org/franciscan-icon

Video source

Love for sinners (D.A. Carson)

    It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will – and it was his love for sinners like me. 

 --D.A. Carson            

Image source: Matthias Grünewald, Crucifixion, Isenheim Altarpiece, detail, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/jan/05/crucifixion-glasgow-theology-students-violent-brutal-images-death-paintings 

Quotation source

The purpose in Gethsemane (Fr. James Martin / Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

Like any Garden, Gethsemane was teaming with life.
God’s life was palpable in the life around me.
 This would also have been true at the time of Jesus.
 How often in considering this story do we consider
that Jesus sought consolation and prayer in a garden? 

--Fr. James Martin 

In golden youth, when seems the earth
A Summer land for singing mirth,
When souls are glad, and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight.
We do not know it, but there lays
Somewhere, veiled under evening skies
A garden all must sometimes see,
      Gethsemane, Gethsemane, 
      Somewhere his own Gethsemane.

With joyous steps we go our ways,
Love lends a halo to our days,
Light sorrows sail like clouds afar,
We laugh and say how strong we are.
We hurry on, and, hurrying, go
Close to the borderland of woe
That waits for you and waits for me;
      Gethsemane, Gethsemane,
      Forever waits Gethsemane.

Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams,
Bridged over by our broken dreams,
Behind the misty caps of years,
Close to the great salt fount of tears
The garden lies; strive as you may
You cannot miss it on your way.
      All paths that have been, or shall be
      Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.

All those who journey, soon or late,
Must pass within the garden’s gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say:
Not mine but thine; who only pray:
Let this cup pass, and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemane. 

 --Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Gethsemane 

Image source: https://uscatholic.org/articles/201905/what-the-agony-in-the-garden-says-about-human-suffering/
Poem source

Dirty feet (Nadia Bolz-Weber)

   On the night that Jesus was betrayed by his friends, he first had dinner with them. But before that, he tied the towel of a servant girl around his waist and he washed their feet. And to be clear, this wasn’t after they’d tidied up first. Jesus met them where they were: with dirty feet, literally and metaphorically. Hours before his disciples betrayed, denied, and abandoned him, Jesus washed their filthy feet. He knew what was about to go down. In the days and weeks prior, he had tried telling them that he would be betrayed and handed over to suffer and be killed, and they all thought he was crazy. But he knew. As he knelt before his friends and washed their feet, he knew that very night they would do the thing that would torture them for the rest of their lives. They would deny, betray, and hand over their own friend and teacher. They would not be the men and women they wanted to be. 

   In the end, we aren’t punished for our sins as much as we are punished by our sins.  

--Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints:
 Finding God in All the Wrong People

Image source: Caravaggio, Madonna of the Rosary (ca.1607), detail.  For more information on the significance of dirty feet in Caravaggio's works, see https://claudiaviggiani.com/caravaggio-dirty-feet/?lang=en