Holy Saturday - The Harrowing of Hell

Our Lord's body lies in the tomb, he has descended to the dead, to Sheol, to Hell, ad infernos. The light of the Gospel, of the Word himself shines out in the darkness of Hades.  The hand of salvation reaches out into the Pit for the salvation of souls.

Harrowing? Yes, for the satanic anti-kingdom. God has broken its gates, he's stormed the stronghold and scattered the Enemy. There, in the dead, leaden, tortured fastness of Hell stands Christ triumphant, Victor, offering the hand of salvation and life to the captives of the demon-ridden underworld. St. John Chrysostom exults:

"The Savior's death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh... It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven."

As Jesus lies in a grave in a garden, the light who is light shines in the darkness, a brilliant flare of truth, beauty, love and mercy, of life itself. Rejoicing in the triumph, may God give us grace to cry out to him for mercy, so that we too may enter Paradise.

The harrowing of Hell? For sure, and of our own souls also.

God bless,

LSP

Holy Wednesday Reflection

I find this helpful, perhaps you will too:

Light From Darkness

 

It is out of that uttermost gloom of My God, my God, why have you forsaken me that the light breaks. The light does not merely shine upon the gloom and so dispel it; it is the gloom itself transformed into light.  For that same crucifixion of our Lord which was, and for ever is, the utmost effort of evil, is itself the means by which God conquers evil and unites us to himself in the redeeming love there manifested.

 

Judas and Caiaphas and Pilate have set themselves in their several ways to oppose and to crush the purpose of Christ, and yet despite themselves they became ministers. They sent Christ to the cross; by the cross he completed his atoning work; from the cross he reigns over mankind.  God in Christ has not merely defeated evil, but has made it the occasion of his own supremest glory.

 

Never was conquest so complete; never was triumph so stupendous.  The completeness of the victory is due to the completeness of the evil over which it was won. It is the very darkness which enshrouds the cross that makes so glorious the light proceeding from it. Had there been no despair, no sense of desolation and defeat, but merely the onward march of irresistible power to the achievement of its end, evil might have been beaten, but not bound in captivity for ever.  God in Christ endured defeat, and out of the very stuff of defeat he wrought his victory and his achievement.

 

Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944) Mens Creatrix.

God in Christ endured defeat, and out of the very stuff of defeat he wrought his victory and his achievement.

Behold the mystery,

LSP

Holy Tuesday Reflection

The many art philosophers who read this lighthearted mind blog might enjoy the Visual Commentary on Scripture (VCS). Here's an excerpt on James 1:12-27 from the VCS Holy Week series:

Another letter—the Letter of James—also highlights a choice between pathways, and Clare Carlisle Tresch’s exploration of its first chapter with the help of three works of art returns us to a consideration of ‘light’. James’s hearers are to ‘put away filthiness’ (James 1:21) and receive the gifts that come from ‘the Father of Lights’ (v.17). 

The self-enclosure of Narcissus in Caravaggio’s baroque painting has led him to turn away from the light. He is mesmerised by his own reflection, captive in the black depths of a pool. By contrast, the contemporary work of landscape sculpture by David Wood faces upwards from the waters on which it floats, fully open to the light ‘from above’ (v.17). 

The third work, a Renaissance panel by Fra Angelico, envisages what Jesus’s followers may hope for at the end of the path well chosen: the reward of those who have become ‘children of light’. They have followed the way of the cross, ‘the wisdom of God’, by which the circle of self is broken open and an encircling glory offers its embrace.

An encircling glory offers its embrace. I love that.

God bless,

LSP