This just in, a wounded Man with dusty feet was seen leaving the tomb near Golgatha, trailing remnants of His winding cloth behind him.
Though injured around the head, hands, feet and ribs, He appears to be walking on His own. A pure white dove seems to be flying a little way ahead of Him toward the city.
When interviewed He said, He was looking first for a tearful woman who loved Him so, so He could reassure her heart that though He had died, He was indeed now alive again.
The reporter asked about His plans after that, and the Man indicated He was headed for the ‘upper room’ where his compañeros were waiting in despair. He would surprise them too, and they would be overjoyed that He was alive again. He said, there would be at least one who would doubt, but that wounds tell the real story, and the doubting one would be convinced that Life rises up from Death.
And on they traveled on the winding dirt road toward the city, the Man and the little pure white dove. Surely it was the sediment in the atmosphere, some veil of dirt held in the air that gave the optical illusion that a halo, a golden light of sorts surrounded the Man and the Dove and moved with them as they proceeded down the road…
Back to you Ed.
CODA
The Password to New Life
These are our high holy days and two days ago was Good Friday. I went to Mass wherein all was shrouded with purple clothes, all statues, all windows, all everything is closed off to the light, in order to say, as we old believers believe: we are for now in the land of the Dead with El Cristo Rey, with the innocent God of Love who has been beaten and crucified to death.
We are now walking together and seeing in a way that can only be seen from ‘under the earth,’ as it is said in ancient Aramaic words, “Crucified, Died and was Buried, then Descended into Hell, and on the third day, Rose Again.”
This was taught to us by our grandmothers and grandfathers, who were themselves old believers and as farmers in the Old Country, they understood too, ‘the harrowing of hell’ ritual that now takes place in our hearts and minds from Good Friday forward until Easter Rising, these days of mourning and pesamé (giving condolences to Blessed Mother), and hoping forward.
Harrowing meant to the old farmers in our family, to drag a heavy frame over the land, to fasten oneself to this by means of reins and suspenders and to pull this heave wooden frame over the newly plowed earth to break the dirt clods even finer…so the seed might be set into easy rather than hard soil. We could see the parallels of the dragging of the Cross to Golgatha, the place of the Skulls… and the dragging of the heavy frame over the newly plowed earth and all its smells of sweat and blood.
And in the medieval religious rituals, Good Friday until Easter Sunday was for the harrowing of Hell… that is, the time to go into the hell of one’s own past and present, and there, to wrest free the innocents– that is, the thoughts, attitudes, emotions, senses of self and others, senses of the world that have been dragged there, debased there, harmed there… and to bring them up to the Light and Life again… drawn up by us the crucified in one way or another ourselves, along with the crucified God of Eternal Love.
In this way, we are not an audience at an event of such deep and horrific and holy means, we are fully ‘with,’ rather than merely ‘watching.’ I understand this as the penultimate of meaning in the old rites; that we are deep in the slog and blood, not outside it.
One way to see this is that we travel together to liberate the return of dashed dreams that deserve to live, rescuing the good child of spirit whom we now cleanse from the slime of bitterness that has been spaded onto her or him against her or his will. There are many other aspects to ‘bringing back’ to the Light again all that is worthy but has been trapped… this decided to each his own, to each her own.
And too then, in this time of deadness and all bright or light or candled or colorful or mirrored, covered over with dark cloths to say, we have not extinguished the light in ourselves, nor has Creator extinguished the Light of Love Eternal, but it has suffered and is ‘away,’ and is learning and reasserting… and more so, much more so, FREEING what and whom is trapped, who and what never deserved to be imprisoned.
And it is by attitude, by holy attitude and soul’s understanding that the innocent are brought back into the land of the living.
There is more. Much more. But this time is for dragging the frame over the earth to make the ground ready for new Life. This time is for descent to free the thoughts and dreams from a place where they are tormented instead of allowed to triumph.
Around the world, there are many many rituales y rites, many ceremonies, gatherings, creating of ways to acknowledge and celebrate the Return of the Light that are so joyous. There are many different ones within Catholicism itself, some like ours that derive from ethnic origins. I send all blessing and welcome to the Souls within every rite. There are many faiths and beliefs.
And in ours, a mortificatio, a suffering to inventory and to free oneself and others in this time comes before the celebration of the Light of the World Returned. This day is for that. And with full hearted hope that El Cristo Rey, and we all, will return in New Life.
As the old people said in our immigrant and refugee family who had many many harrowings no matter what season through war and enslavement and strife: Though life is suffering, the Soul lives for resurrection.
so may it be for you dear Souls
so may it be for me
and so may it be for all of us, ever
Dont forget the Password: People will tell you it’s all manner of things, material and immaterial. But the Password to New Life is ever this: Resurrection.
Aymen
Aymen
Aymen
—————-
“Password to Semana Santa, Holy Week, Good Friday to Easter,” by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, ©2011
You see this ancient and old fashioned way the old country people hand-harrowed. This is a very small harrowing frame; most are twice as long and wide and literally have horse harness accoutrements to them that the humans step into in order to pull hard up and down the fields. You’ll notice the soil in the top of the picture is broken much finer than the soil in the foreground where the harrowing has already taken place.
**The beautiful standing Cristo atop is from Demetz Art Studio in Italy. It is hand carved in linden wood, and then carefully hand painted by the artisans there. There are several other crucifixes with this motif, of the Christ descending from the Cross, with the Espirito Santo, the Holy Spirit/ The Dove of Peace being offered to the suffering world.
***Many say in Spanish at Easter, Cristo Resucitó, Christ is risen, Christ is resurrected. But we in our own little neck of the woods at Easter have said Cristo Nacio! which means Christ is Born… and we mean, again and again… in our hearts. That this is not just recognition of an event at Easter, but a daily event that is to take place inside each of us… born again after lying dead, born again, rising again, together, Creator and humane attitudes in us.