this from alexander schia's e-postings seemed too good to miss:
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/161911/e262f4ea61/1390005899/c3cece1dae/
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/161911/e262f4ea61/1390005899/c3cece1dae/
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
a wealth of images
chanukkah. the consecration of the temple. the entrance of mary into the temple. the glory of the lord. the birth of the king. shepherds abiding in the field.
all of those images belong to this time of the year, and they are related in ways we don't always remember, but which are important if we are to understand how it is that the birth of jesus is the fulfillment of the desire of the nations.
most of the time we don't make much of the coincidence of chanukkah and christmas, except that they both somehow involve light and giving of gifts. (i had jewish friends as i was growing up whose families had chanukkah bushes.) nor are we, as christians at least, much aware that the word chanukkah is a pun on dedication, or that the festival is mentioned in the gospel according to john (10:22ff.) where curiously enough considering the story luke will include in his birth narrative, jesus talks about sheep.
chanukkah is the feast of the rededication of the temple during the maccabean revolt in the second century b.c. the books of maccabees did not become part of the jewish canon of scriptures as it was codified in the centuries following the destruction of jerusalem in a.d. 70, but they remain in the canon of the church, providing a fascinating background to the incarnation, and to the charges against jesus at his trial, for saying that he will tear down the temple and rebuild it. the story in 1 maccabees (4:36ff.), although it is the setting for the miracle of eight days of rejoicing, does not mention the talmud's story of the miracle of the small cruse of oil that kept the lights burning throughout the ritual that is the basis for the current celebration. but for my purposes, there is another thing missing, even more important.
when the first temple was dedicated, by solomon, 'the glory of the lord filled the lord's temple.' (i kings 8:11) there is no such event connected with the second temple, either at its first consecration, described in the book of ezra (6:3ff.), at the behest of kind darius of persia, nor at its rededication at the behest of judas maccabeus.
but the temple and its ceremony and centrality remained important in jewish understanding of their identity and their relationship to god, something it is vital to consider if we are to understand 'the christmas story.' jesus would replace the stones of the physical temple, the very stones, probably, thrown at him on his dedication visit to the temple, with living stones. the church would suggest that the first of those stones was his mother, the virgin mary, whose womb became a temple larger than the universe. and the imagery of the coming of the holy spirit in the book of acts is parallen to the description of the dedication of solomon's temple and of isaiah's and ezekiel's visions of the glory of the holy one. but before luke tells that story, he had another story of the glory of the lord.
it begins 'and there were shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. and, lor, the angel of the lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them . . . .' the king born in the stable is the legitimate king. the temple he builds will house the glory of the holy one. darius, judas maccabeus, herod, all are impostors.
and now, the glory of the lord is not contained in a building made with hands, a problem solomon had understood when he built the prophetic temple. but the glory of the lord can dwell (tabernacle, as john would say in his gospel, relating again to the presence in the temple and in the tent of meeting) in open fields with shepherds and, most importantly, in the human heart, where mary, luke informs us, pondered these things.
after the destruction of jerusalem, christians, whether jews or now, spread into the world, as did jews, christians or not, all sent to be witnesses to 'the light which cometh into the world', whether understood as having happened or still longed for.
so, one of the mitzvahs of the hanukkah lights that is often not appreciated enough is that they are lights for the whole world. they are not to light the house--for that there is the shamash, the helper or servant. they are to witness to the miracle, and to be an object for pondering, for meditation. they are often put in windows, or at the door opposite the mezuzah.
and so it is with the christ, the newborn king. "he is a light to lighten the gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people israel."
or as isaiah foretold it: ' and the glory of the lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the lord hath spoken it. '
Monday, December 12, 2011
the woman clothed with the sun: our lady of guadalupe
'and there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of seven stars . . . '
as i write, one of those candles in a glass tube one finds in the mexican food section of supermarkets, with a paper icon of the virgen del guadalupe on one side, and prayers to her in spanish and english on the other side, is burning before the icons of my sleeping loft, icons of my patron st. chad, a saxon who was trained by the celtic abbot aidan and who came to be consecrated bishop of mercia--the welsh marches--by the roman-appointed archbishop of canterbury from tarsus, and of ezekiel, the hebrew prophet and priest who wrote in exile in chaldea.
the twelth of december is the feast day of our lady of guadalupe, commemorating the appearance in 1531 of a young girl to the peasant juan diego, to whom she spoke in his native languge, nahuatl, that a church should be built in her honor on the hill of tepeyac. he told the story to his bishop, who suggested his story would be more convincing if there were some proof from the mysterious virgin, so juan diego returned to the hill. the young woman, in deep winter, brought castilian roses into bloom from the dry desert soil, filling juan's cloak. when he returned to the bishop and opened his cloak, the flowers fell out and in their place on the cloak, the tilpa which is still the center of the shrine to the virgen in what is now mexico city, was the image which is now the symbol of mexico and known in nearly every catholic parish in the world.
as so often happened, franciscans, in charge of the church that had been built on the spot of an ancient native shrine to tonantzin, opposed accepting juan diego's claim, but the dominicans supported the aztec veneration of this image and understanding of our lady. the archbishop, alonzo du montafar, himself a dominican, agreed to the veneration, gave the site to the keeping of the domincans, and called for the building of a larger church. greater acclaim would follow. in 1754, benedict xiv would declare the virgin of guadalupe the patron of new spain, pius x made her patron of latin america in 1910, and in 1945 pius xii would declare her patroness of all the americas.
it was only when i came to live in santa fe in 1989 that i began to understand the significance of the virgin of guadalupe. it was not primarily because of the great devotion to her there. (the photograph above is of the new statue--some of my more protestant friends might call it an idol--of her outside the santuario de guadalupe, said to be the oldest shrine to her in north america.) it was because in santa fe, where the valley of the river that gives life to the city seems itself like labial folds, a resonance made famous in georgia o'keefe's flower paintings, that i began to appreciate the importance of the mother. it was there that i forgave my mother for what had seemed to me to be mistreatment of my brothers. it was in santa fe that i began to appreciate the necessity of the virgin's willing partcipation in the salvation of the world, and there that i started my exploration of the many ways the virgin has come to be known to us.
when i moved to eureka springs the virgin of the life giving spring came into my life. although eureka springs for the most part is a town given to the greed of selling t-shirts and 'lite beer,' the springs that gave the city a reason for existence are still there, still a gift of the mother.
now that i am at the corner of the united states, perched out towards the pacific ocean, living near a big field where i go to view the starry starry night, it is our lady the star of the sea who captures my imagination.
but for today's feast the important question remains, who is this young woman, this virgin, who spoke to juan diego in his own tongue? is she really, as the franciscans said, the local goddess craftily reimaged by an aztec painter inside juan hildago's tilma? or is she, as the dominicans said, the very mother of our lord. my response is, why must it be one and not the other? why can they not be the same? those who find the veneration of the virgin of guadalupe superstitious like to point out that the aztec tonantzin is coatlaxopeuh, 'she who crushes the serpent,' and not the virgin mary of our christmas carols. ah, but the virgin of our christmas carols, quiet songs like 'away in a manger' is she not the 'woman clothed with the sun' of john's vision on patmos. (i am delighted that both visionaries had the same name, john and juan.)
in a few weeks we will hear once again the angels' song to the shepherds of a savior which shall be to all people. all people, not just to those living in judea. we will respond with the symbol of the faith in which we say that savior rose 'in accordance with the scriptures.' do we not deminish that rising when we insist that it is only in accordance with the hebrew scriptures? we do well to remember that in those same hebrew scriptures, which we call 'the old testament', the holy and eternal one makes covenant with all people before abram is singled out, and the blessing through abram, renamed abraham, is itself for all people.
like the people in jerusalem 'when the day of pentecost was fully come', juan diego heard the good news in his own tongue. it is, i would suggest, part of of our task to hear the good news in our own tongue, to haste to bethlehem like the shepherds, who first 'found mary, and joseph, and the babe.' let us like the magi follow the star we may be gifted to see, would be one of the people who look east.*
here at the corner of the world, for me that may be the star of the sea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gER1FAfi3Oc&feature=related
as i write, one of those candles in a glass tube one finds in the mexican food section of supermarkets, with a paper icon of the virgen del guadalupe on one side, and prayers to her in spanish and english on the other side, is burning before the icons of my sleeping loft, icons of my patron st. chad, a saxon who was trained by the celtic abbot aidan and who came to be consecrated bishop of mercia--the welsh marches--by the roman-appointed archbishop of canterbury from tarsus, and of ezekiel, the hebrew prophet and priest who wrote in exile in chaldea.
the twelth of december is the feast day of our lady of guadalupe, commemorating the appearance in 1531 of a young girl to the peasant juan diego, to whom she spoke in his native languge, nahuatl, that a church should be built in her honor on the hill of tepeyac. he told the story to his bishop, who suggested his story would be more convincing if there were some proof from the mysterious virgin, so juan diego returned to the hill. the young woman, in deep winter, brought castilian roses into bloom from the dry desert soil, filling juan's cloak. when he returned to the bishop and opened his cloak, the flowers fell out and in their place on the cloak, the tilpa which is still the center of the shrine to the virgen in what is now mexico city, was the image which is now the symbol of mexico and known in nearly every catholic parish in the world.
as so often happened, franciscans, in charge of the church that had been built on the spot of an ancient native shrine to tonantzin, opposed accepting juan diego's claim, but the dominicans supported the aztec veneration of this image and understanding of our lady. the archbishop, alonzo du montafar, himself a dominican, agreed to the veneration, gave the site to the keeping of the domincans, and called for the building of a larger church. greater acclaim would follow. in 1754, benedict xiv would declare the virgin of guadalupe the patron of new spain, pius x made her patron of latin america in 1910, and in 1945 pius xii would declare her patroness of all the americas.
it was only when i came to live in santa fe in 1989 that i began to understand the significance of the virgin of guadalupe. it was not primarily because of the great devotion to her there. (the photograph above is of the new statue--some of my more protestant friends might call it an idol--of her outside the santuario de guadalupe, said to be the oldest shrine to her in north america.) it was because in santa fe, where the valley of the river that gives life to the city seems itself like labial folds, a resonance made famous in georgia o'keefe's flower paintings, that i began to appreciate the importance of the mother. it was there that i forgave my mother for what had seemed to me to be mistreatment of my brothers. it was in santa fe that i began to appreciate the necessity of the virgin's willing partcipation in the salvation of the world, and there that i started my exploration of the many ways the virgin has come to be known to us.
now that i am at the corner of the united states, perched out towards the pacific ocean, living near a big field where i go to view the starry starry night, it is our lady the star of the sea who captures my imagination.
but for today's feast the important question remains, who is this young woman, this virgin, who spoke to juan diego in his own tongue? is she really, as the franciscans said, the local goddess craftily reimaged by an aztec painter inside juan hildago's tilma? or is she, as the dominicans said, the very mother of our lord. my response is, why must it be one and not the other? why can they not be the same? those who find the veneration of the virgin of guadalupe superstitious like to point out that the aztec tonantzin is coatlaxopeuh, 'she who crushes the serpent,' and not the virgin mary of our christmas carols. ah, but the virgin of our christmas carols, quiet songs like 'away in a manger' is she not the 'woman clothed with the sun' of john's vision on patmos. (i am delighted that both visionaries had the same name, john and juan.)
in a few weeks we will hear once again the angels' song to the shepherds of a savior which shall be to all people. all people, not just to those living in judea. we will respond with the symbol of the faith in which we say that savior rose 'in accordance with the scriptures.' do we not deminish that rising when we insist that it is only in accordance with the hebrew scriptures? we do well to remember that in those same hebrew scriptures, which we call 'the old testament', the holy and eternal one makes covenant with all people before abram is singled out, and the blessing through abram, renamed abraham, is itself for all people.
here at the corner of the world, for me that may be the star of the sea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gER1FAfi3Oc&feature=related
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
another advent light in the winter's darkness
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
(gerard manley hopkins, jesuit pagan)
Friday, December 2, 2011
the darkness of the sun: from gilgamesh to grunge
that interest led to consider the journey within, journey into the heart, often the heart of darkness, the underworld journey. it is a journey necessary for all of us if we are to find eternal life, but it is not something one is likely to hear about in sermons, not even on holy saturday, when as we say in the symbol of the faith, jesus the christ 'descended into hell.' and yet it is a journey that has been wondered sung about for as long as we have written records and memories.**
to help with this winter reise, this journey into the inner darkness, i have moved for the winter into a tiny space in the dark of a clump of fir trees. not quite so dark and confining as new grange, perhaps, but probably sufficient for a yankee.
'The Scorpion Monster Being said to him:
". . .
This is the path of the sun's journey by night.
Lightless the sun utterly lightless goes
from the setting to the rising through the mountain.
This is the path of the sun, utterly dark,
twelve leagues of darkness through, utterly lightless.
No mortal would ever be able to go this way."
Gilgamesh said, his body seized in terror:
"This is the way that Gilgamesh must go,
weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing,
whether in heat or cold, companionless."
. . .
After the Scorpion Dragon Being spoke,
Gilgamesh went to the entrance into the mountain
and entered the darkness alone, without a companion.
By the time eh reached the end of the first league
the darkness was total, nothing behind or before.
He made his way, companionless, to the end
of the second league. Utterly lightless, black.
There was nothing behind or before, nothing at all.
Only, the blackness pressed in upon his body.
He felt his blind way through the mountain tunnel,
struggling for breath, through the third league, alone,
and companionless through the fourth, making his way,
and struggling for every breath, to the end of the fifth
in absolute dark, nothing behind or before.
the weight of the blackness pressing in upon him.
Weeping and fearful he journeyed a sixth league,
and, blind, to the end of the seventh league, alone,
without a companion, seeing nothing at all,
weeping and fearful, sturggling to keep breathing.
. . .
[he similarly struggles without sight and with difficulty of breath for the eight, and ninth leagues, crying for his lack of any companion.]
'Just then, at the end of the ninth league, just once
the rough tongue of the North Wind licked his face.
It was like the tongue of a wild bull or a lion.
He struggled on through the darkness, trying to breathe.
. . .
through eleven leagues of the darkness, nothing at all
and something, ahead of him, a league ahead
a little light, a grayness, began to show.
Weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing,
he made his way through the last league of the journey,
twelve leagues in the darkness, alone, companionless,
weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breating,
he made is way and finally struggled out free
into the morning air and the morning sunlight.
He emerged from the mountain into a wonderful garden.
Gilgamesh looked at the garden and wondered at it.
The fruits and the foliage of the trees were all
the colors of the jewels of the world,
carnelian and lapis lazuli,
jasper, rubies, agate, and hematite,
emerald, and all the other gems the earth
has yielded for the delight and pleasure of kings.
And beyond the garden Gilgamesh saw the sea.
(David Ferry, Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 1992), pp. 50-53.)
and i do not think i am pushing stewart's thesis of the re-emergence of primal images and texts in popular music with sound garden's 'black hole sun.'****
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBXGxgreM1k
*(http://www.neocappadocians.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html)
**i can't recommend too much r. j. stewart's excellent book, the underworld initiation (http://www.amazon.com/Underworld-Initiation-journey-towards-transformation/dp/1892137038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322869827&sr=8-1) in which he discusses, among other things, the survival of the necessity of the inner journey in folk songs.
***(http://www.amazon.com/Gilgamesh-New-Rendering-English-Verse/dp/0374523835/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322870187&sr=1-3)
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