April 2007 - Vol. 7 Back Issues '06-07

• He Is Risen, by Carlos Mantica, Managua, Nicaragua • The Good News of Easter, by Fr. Herb Schneider, Manila, Philippines

• Obedience Revisited, a neglected virtue renewed by grace, by Steve Clark • Where's the Joy? by Bruce Yocum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

• Mary Magdalene: Witness to the Risen Lord, by Jeanne Kun •Praise and Thanks: a scriptural orientation to worship by Mike Shaughnessy

• Called for These Times: how the People of God community began in Lebanon

• Awakened to Eternity: a spiritual journey of poems by Jeanne Kun • By His Stripes We Are Healed: artwork by Jamie Treadwell

Living Bulwark is committed to fostering renewal of the whole Christian people: Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. We especially want to give witness to the charismatic, ecumenical, evangelistic, and community dimensions of that renewal. Living Bulwark seeks to equip Christians to grow in holiness, to apply Christian teaching to their lives, and to respond with faith and generosity to the working of the Holy Spirit in our day.

Living Bulwark (c) copyright 2007 publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net

April 2007 - Vol. 7

Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio, 1571-1610

He Is Risen!

the apostles’ fear and skepticism gave way to faith and joy when they recognized their Lord risen in glory

by Carlos Mantica

Christ triumphed over death Christians celebrate Easter because they believe that Jesus came back from the tomb and returned to life. But many have difficulty seeing past the tragedy of Good Friday when Christ died on the cross. They miss the significance of what Christ accomplished for us when he went through death and returned to life.

What was it like for Christ to return from the tomb? And how did his disciples react when they saw him again? Did he look the same as before, like someone who goes away on a journey, and then returns? Christ did not just come back in that sense. He went through death for our sake. And he returned not just as he was before, but now as the risen Lord who triumphed over death. That is why Christ's resurrection is the greatest news that has ever been announced to mankind.

The significance of Easter is more than the celebration of Christ rising from the tomb. If the only thing that Christ did was simply return from the dead, then what is so remarkable about that? Other people have risen from the dead as well. We know from the Gospel of John, in chapter 11, that Lazarus rose from the dead, and the lifeless son of the widow of Nain was raised by Jesus as well (Luke 7:11-17). Peter also raised up Tabitha (Acts 9:36). Paul raised up a

young boy in Troas named Eutychus, who fell asleep while stting in an open window because Paul’s preaching was so long, and then fell some three stories to the ground (Acts 20:7-12). And even before all these happened, we know of two ealier resurrection stories in the Old Testament—the son of the woman at Shunem was restored to life by the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-37). And the widow of Zarephath was raised by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24)).

In 1975 I personally heard the testimony of a Mexican Indian girl in Texas whom the Lord raised up from the dead, and the testimony of the physicians and nurses who had cared for her.

All of these people who were raised ended up dying again. And after a while, no one remembers them or celebrates their “resurrection”. But in Christ's resurrection something far greater and more significant has taken place. The apostles had witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus, and they saw the lifeless son of the widow of Nain walking once again. But when they announced the resurrection of Christ, they spoke about something unusual, something that had never happened before, something not even conceived in a dream.

When the apostles first heard the story told by the women who saw Jesus on Easter Sunday morning, they could not believe it was possible. Like most Jews, except for the Saducees who did not believe that the dead would rise again, the apostles did believe in the immortality of the soul. But the women's story of seeing Jesus seemed more believable as the appearance of a ghost. Earlier, when Jesus had walked on the water and reached the apostles’ boat in the middle of the night, their first reaction was, “It's a ghost!” (Matthew 14:26)

Put your hands in my wounds! This same reaction happens after the resurrection of Christ, when Jesus has to persuade the disciples several times that they are not talking to a ghost or to an hallucination. “Come on, Thomas, put your hand in my wounds, touch me and see that I am no ghost!” (John 20:24-29)

That Christ could be a ghost was easy for them to believe, and they did believe it. What they could not believe was what they were actually seeing. Ghosts and apparitions do not eat roasted fish for breakfast on the beach, as Christ does by the Lake of Galilee after his resurrection (John 21). Nor do ghosts go about saying the kinds of things that the Lord Jesus said, such as:

Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (John 20:22-23).

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

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Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio, 1610

The Lord of Life and Death Christ is risen with his own whole body, but this body is not like the body of Lazarus, or the body of Tabitha, or the body of the son of the widow of Nain. It is not even like Christ's body before being glorified. Something special has happened. When Mary Magdalen finds Jesus in the garden, she mistakes him for the gardener, even though a woman can tell the face of her beloved at a thousand yards' distance (John 20:15). The same thing happens with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who only recognize Jesus when he breaks bread with them (Luke 24:30-31).

Christ is the same, and yet he is different. If he were not the same but someone else, then he would not be Christ and we would be referring to a different person. But if he were just the same as before, we would be talking about Jesus of Nazareth but not about the Lord of Life and Death, whom God glorified and to whom he gave a name above every name, the Lord of everything and everone that exists, and before whom every knee bows down in heaven and on earth and below the earth (Philippians 2:9-11).

It is the Lord! Jesus is the same, and therefore the apostles are able to recognize him: “It is the Lord!” Peter says, when Peter sees him on the beach and swims towards him (John 21:7). His gestures are the same, and he lifts his eyes to heaven when he breaks bread the same way he did at the Last Supper. His character is the same. He continues to be discrete and respectful of one’'s conscience. He is tender to all, and at the same time firm and strict. He continues to be a friend to all, but he preserves his circle of intimate friends.

He is the same, and yet he is also different. He can enter a room while the doors are closed, and he can appear and disappear at any place or time. He can take different appearances, so sometimes he looks like a gardener, sometimes a traveler going to Emmaus, or a young man strolling on the lake shore, but at the same time you can touch him and put your fingers in his wounds, and he can eat and drink with his friends. He appears as someone who has gone through time and space. He knows all about the past and the future.

We will be glorified too! And this will happen to all of us. We will be the same, yet we will be different. We will have a glorified body, similar to Jesus’ glorified body. Not mere spirits, disembodied little souls, but flesh and bone like him. But not like Lazarus, who merely came back to life, to the same life as before; rather, as people who have received a new eternal life.

The Raising of Lazarus, by Giovanni Francesco Guercino, 1619

The resurrection of Lazarus was a simple return to this life, which therefore left him subject to death. Jesus did not return from death, did not evade it, but instead triumphed over it, and his new life was found on the other side of death. And now he cannot die again. Christ inaugurates this new life and this this nature. He is the first-born of the risen ones. He is the one who opened the way for all of us who also will live forever, with a body like his. Neither Christ, nor we after being raised by him, will ever die again, but will live forever. Paul explains that all will rise again with the body they now have, in the same way Christ did, but that this body will have been transformed into a glorious body.

But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself (Philippians 3:20-21).

But some one will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain....What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power....For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15).

[Carlos Mantica is a past president of The Sword of the Spirit and the founding leader of La Cuidad de Dios, a member community of The Sword of the Spirit in Managua. He is a national advisor of the Cursillo Movement in Nicaragua. He is a prolific writer and noted author and member of the Nicaraguan Academy of Language. This article is adapted from his book, From Egghood to Birdhood: Hatch or Rot as a Christian, 2001. Used with permission.]

(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

"Road to Emmaus" by John Dunne, Dublin, Ireland

The Good News of Easter

by Fr. Herb Schneider, SJ

What are the consequences of Easter? Have you ever asked yourself what the world would be like if there were no Easter, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead? For sure the disciples would not only have returned from Jerusalem to Galilee deeply disappointed and sad, but they would have gone back to their ordinary way of life and little by little forgotten Jesus. He would have been but a fading memory and his teachings a beautiful dream buried with him in the tomb. The advice of the poet Horace would have been correct: “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” And so would have been Catullus, another Roman poet, who encouraged his lover to live for love and kisses, because when life ends and night falls it lasts forever without any dawn.

St. Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith is empty too. You are still in your sins and those who have fallen asleep in Christ are the deadest of the dead. If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of men” (1 Corinthian’s 15:14-17,19).

But thanks be to God! He has raised Jesus from the dead. Everything has changed. Our sins have been pardoned. We have been reconciled with God and in Christ have become his sons and daughters. In this Spirit he has called us together as his people. The Pentecost chapter of the Acts of the Apostles describes the consequences of the resurrection and exultation of Jesus under the following headings:

1. The gift of the Spirit and the reversal of all the curse of the Tower of Babel.

2. The transformation of frightened people into bold proclaimers of the marvels of God. 3. The creation of a Eucharistic community of disciples on mission.

The gift of the Spirit “All were filled with the Spirit” (Acts 2:4). The keywords are “all” and “filled”. All in the upper room without exception received as much of God’s Spirit as they were able to receive. No one received only a little bit or a partial gift. There was an immediate transformation: Frightened men and women who had assembled behind closed windows and locked doors threw open doors and windows and had an exuberant prayer meeting in the street. Their fears were gone and their praise and exultation was such that the onlookers thought them drunk with wine (Acts 2:13,15).

They boldly proclaimed “the marvelous deeds God had accomplished” (Acts 2:11) and all those who had come together, “Jews of every nation under heaven” heard what God had accomplished through Jesus in their own native language (Acts 2:8-11). The book of Genesis comes to a climax in the story of human sinfulness by telling us that people in their pride attempted to build a tower into heaven in order to usurp God’s place. God dealt with their pride by confusing their language. The story depicts the ultimate result of sin: Not only estrangement from God, but also estrangement from one another. Sin destroys communication and makes community impossible. But now, because of Easter, because of Jesus’ victory over sin, the gift of his Spirit undoes the curse of the Tower of Babel. Communication and communion are restored. In and through Jesus, community is once again possible in the Holy Spirit. Bringing together God’s people is the goal of the gift of the Spirit.

A community of God's redeemed people Luke describes for us the redeemed people of God in Acts 2:42-47. Community is the fruit of Jesus’ death, resurrection and exultation to God’s right hand as Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:34,36). The community of God’s redeemed people is first of all a Eucharistic community; a community that is able to give God praise and worship (Acts 2:46-47). They celebrated the Lord’s Supper with joyful hearts (Acts 2:42-46). They cared for one another in such a way that no one lacked necessities (Acts 2:44-45). They grew in their life of discipleship living out the instructions of the apostles (Acts 2:42). They welcomed new members (Acts 2:47).

Good news for us The resurrection of Jesus was a one-time event. It happened on the first day of the week some nineteen hundred seventy-four years ago. The effects of the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, however, have never ceased. Easter in this sense happens whenever people accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and are filled with his Spirit and called to community. Easter happens when disciples of Jesus in community empowered by the Holy Spirit worship and praise the Father for the marvels he has done in and through Jesus. When they boldly and fearlessly proclaim “that God has made both Lord and Messiah the Jesus” who was crucified (Acts 2:36), when disciples share their resources with one another not only to sustain the mission of evangelization, but also to care for one another’s needs, when their bold proclamation bears fruit in the growth of God’s people.

This is exactly what is happening in our midst. In so many different ways we see the exalted Lord and Messiah Jesus pour out his Spirit to raise up communities of disciples on mission in the Church, to live out in their particular circumstances the Easter and Pentecost chapters of the book of Acts. To God's marvelous deeds there is only one response, which has a twofold process: To praise and thank God with exuberant alleluias and to make ourselves available for his mission.

[Fr. Herb Schneider, MA, STL, STD, is professor of New Testament and dean of Loyola School of Theology in the Philippines, author of five books on the New Testament and transformational leadership, and a member of the International Executive Council of The Sword of the Spirit].

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

Obedience Revisited

A noted preacher says this neglected virtue is being renewed by grace.

by Steve Clark

Jesus Carries his Cross, by Michael O'Brien

Is obedience an out-dated virtue? Obedience is not particularly esteemed in this day and age, and consequently, it is not much thought about. But Father Raniero Cantalamessa directs our attention to it in his book Obedience, and he calls the Christian people to a renewal of obedience.

Father Cantalamessa, a Capuchin friar who has been professor of history at the Catholic University of Milan, is well known in Europe as a preacher and speaker at charismatic renewal events. He is perhaps even better known as “preacher to the papal household.” His message on obedience is one that he considers to be a word for now.

We live in a time in which obedience is tolerated by many only as a necessary restraint on the adult exercise of human freedom. We adults need to obey the law so that we don’t harm one another. We Christian adults need to obey God’s law for much the same reason. Obedience is something like respect for traffic regulations: They protect our lives while we go where we ourselves wish to go.

Are we free to abandon personal obedience? The modern mentality considers personal obedience to be only for children. Even then, the imposition of the will of an adult can only be justified by the fact that children are not yet fully capable of directing their own lives. Drawn out to its conclusion, this line of thinking says that the sooner children can make up their own minds, clarify their own values, and make their own choices, the better off they will be, and the better their lives will go. Obedience is an old-fashioned virtue that is out of style today.

Father Cantalamessa strongly disagrees. Obedience may not be considered fashionable by many, but it is scriptural, and therefore, enduring. The gospel message and the teaching of Scripture as a whole cannot be rightly understood without seeing the centrality of obedience. Jesus is “the Obedient One,” and the new Christian order is based on his becoming “obedient to death” (see Philippians 2:8): We cannot abandon personal obedience without abandoning Christianity

Obedience renewed by grace and by the Holy Spirit .

Yet Father Cantalamessa’s message is more than just a call for a return to obedience—it is a call for a renewal of obedience “in the Holy Spirit.” Too often obedience has been a matter of externalism, conformity to Christian patterns and institutions. Too often it has been legalism, simply following rules, adhering to “the letter of the law.” The obedience we are called to must be a renewed obedience, renewed by grace, renewed by the Spirit of God.

A renewed spiritual obedience goes back to the center of obedience, the obedience we see in Christ himself. It is the obedience that comes from love of God and desire to do the Father’s will. It is obedience to the written word of God, which teaches us the Father’s will. It is also an obedience of personal call. And it is, in every case, the surrender of our own will so that we might do God’s will.

We can delude ourselves on this point: There is, after all, a “spiritual” way of wanting one’s own will. The desire for spiritual growth, for instance, can be a desire to become what we want to be with God’s help, rather than a desire to do God’s will, to surrender our lives to the good of others and to the glory of God.

The obedience of faith Faith, too, can be a substitute for obedience. It can be a way of getting what we want or believe we need rather than a trusting response to God and a willingness to accept what he wants for us. “Faith,” as it is sometimes preached, can be a means to vainglory or greed or personal comfort. Yet, Scripture speaks of “the obedience” of faith (see Romans 1:5). Faith that does not come out of obedience and lead to obedience is not fully the faith that comes from the Spirit of Christ, the Obedient One. Renewal in obedience is rooted, as Father Cantalamessa stresses, in a deeper obedience to God. And there is a connection between obedience to God and to human authorities: authorities in the church, in religious communities, and in the secular government. As Father Cantalamessa writes, “Disobedience to God is at the root of every disobedience, and obedience to God is at the root of every obedience” (p.16). The renewal of human obedience is renewal in obedience to God.

“Spiritual obedience to God, rather than detracting from obedience to visible and institutional authority, actually renews it. It strengthens and unifies it to the point that obedience to man becomes the criterion for judging whether obedience to God exists or not and whether it is genuine or not” (p. 48). This does not happen automatically. One can take refuge in human obedience to avoid obedience to God. There is much to learn about spiritual obedience. Yet “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:21).

Obedience, authority, and faithfulness The complementary truth is also important. Authority should not be “bare authority” Those in authority themselves must obey God and seek to do his will. The more they find God’s will, the more authoritative their authority will be. Obedience is a human relationship that can be spiritual. The more each side of the relationship approaches the relationship in a spiritual way, the more spiritual the relationship will be.

Obedience, authority, and faithfulness are not as highly valued among Christians today as they have been in the past. Within the charismatic renewal, influences that come from the more fundamentalist wing of the Christian world tend to equate authority with control, to exalt individual freedom over community, and even to put faith at odds with faithfulness. In the Catholic Church, traditional respect for order and the value put on religious communities is in a process of renewal that makes the ways of obedience uncertain. In such times, Father Cantalamessa’s message reminds us to seek out the basics and calls us to see the special questions of obedience in that light.

[Steve Clark is the President of The Sword of the Spirit. This article originally appeared in New Covenant, April 1990.](c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit

publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom email: editor@swordofthespirit.net

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

Where's the Joy?

We can't avoid every difficulty and trial, but we can find true joy.

by Bruce Yocum

By His Stripes We Have Been Healed - Easter by Jamie Treadwell

Is this life a “vale of tears”? A while ago, I read a chance remark made by Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Nicaragua, and it set me thinking. Cardinal Obando was asked about the many kidnapping attempts made against him, and whether they made him fear for his life. His reply was, “I will stay here on earth and serve as long as God sees fit to keep me here to do penance for my sins,” or words to that effect.

What a remarkable contrast with the view of life many people have today! So many of us assume—almost without reflecting upon it clearly—that our life is supposed to be filled with present-day happiness and fulfillment. And if it is not, then something must be wrong, and we have to go about finding the cure for the problem.

Now, I grew up as a Catholic in an era filled with nuns (who did not look very happy) telling me in so many words that I should not really expect to be happy living as a Christian because, after all, this life is a “vale of tears.”

(I knew the expression “vale of tears” long before I knew what a “vale” was, and consequently spent a lot of time trying to manufacture a suitable image to go with the words “vale of tears.” Mainly I tried to create something connected with the veils that women always wore in church back then. The result of these attempts was highly unsatisfactory but the expression “vale of tears” stuck with me because it has a poetic ring to it.)

By the time I got to the university I was in the market for something happier than a vale of tears, so I began to explore versions of Marxism, libertarianism, and so forth.

Christian life as a life of joy To my astonishment, I discovered real joy and happiness—not in my new isms, but in Christianity!

When I was baptized in the Spirit, I encountered joy so profound and so abundant that my natural shyness was overcome, and I even began to tell perfect strangers about the gospel. This was so good they had to hear about it! Sorrow and drudgery were washed away, and I lived my daily life in the knowledge and the presence of God.

The old “vale of tears” Christianity had gotten it all wrong; daily Christian living was a joy.

That was 38 years ago, and in the time since then I have had to ponder again the truth of living in a vale of tears.

Have I lost the gift that God gave me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit? Am I no longer a true charismatic because my life has been filled with sorrow and disappointment as well as with joy? Is Cardinal Obando not living a genuine joy-filled life? Where lies the truth? What is it right to expect out of a full and living Christian faith?

Certainly both Jesus and Paul call us to expect sorrow and trial. Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me.” Or again he said, “The gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to eternal life.”

Paul tells us that “it is through many tribulations that we must enter the Kingdom of God.” And he says that “all who live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Yet both Jesus and Paul tell us that the Christian life is a life of’ joy. Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” And Paul calls us to “rejoice always.”

The source of true joy in the midst of trials and sorrow I have often meditated on a song written hundreds of years ago by St. Bernard of Cluny:

Brief life is here our portion, brief sorrow, short-lived care; the life that knows no ending, the tearless life is there.

It is the contrast between the brief, passing difficulties of this life and the endless and complete joy of life with God after this life has passed that is the source of Bernard’s joy. He expects trial here:

And now we fight the battle... and now we watch and struggle.

But he awaits the final victory of God’s grace and love over the trials and sorrows of this life:

But he whom now we trust in shall then be seen and known,

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and they that know and see him shall have him for their own. The morning shall awaken, the shadows shall decay, and each true-hearted servant shall shine as does the day.

But is this not simply a retreat to the “vale of tears” view of life here on earth? Is this not simply a reluctant admission that what we experience in being baptized in the Spirit is nice, but an inadequate answer to the trials of life?

No. Not for Bernard of Cluny, and not for me. I said before that it is the contrast between the brief trials of this life and the everlasting joy of God’s presence in the life to come that is the source of Bernard’s joy—the source of his joy here, in this life.

Just as it was the source of Francis of Assisi’s joy, of Dominic, and Thomas Aquinas, Charles Wesley, and Amy Carmichael, and every other saint’s joy. Just as it was and is the source of joy for every man, woman and child who knows God and believes in his promise.

Faith rooted in the personal knowledge of God When I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, God gave me faith, faith rooted in a direct and personal knowledge of the one in whom I placed my faith. That faith, as the Letter to the Hebrews says is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things to come.” By faith, rooted in the personal knowledge of God, we, like the saints of old, can “conquer kingdoms... receive promises... win strength out of weakness.” Through faith we are, as Paul says, “more than conquerors.”

This life will present us with many challenges, sorrows, trials, grief, and losses. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit will not spare us those. But the living, personal knowledge of God that we have received through being baptized in the Spirit will enable us to face them, endure them, and ultimately triumph over them. And now in the midst of trial, we can sing with Bernard of Cluny:

There God, our King and portion, in fullness of his grace, shall we behold forever, and worship face-to-face. Jesus, in your mercy bring us to that dear land of rest who art with God the Father and Spirit ever blessed.

[Bruce Yocum is President of Christ the King Association and a member of the International Executive Council of The Sword of the Spirit. This article was originally published in New Covenant Magazine, December 1991.]

(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

Mary Magdalene:

Witness to the

Risen Lord

by Jeanne Kun

"Noli Me Tangere" (Do Not Touch Me) by Titian, 1511-12

Renaissance and Elizabethan Englanders called Mary Magdalene the “Mawdleyn,” a version of her name that gave rise to the modern word “maudlin,” which describes someone who weeps sentimentally. “Reformed prostitute” is the definition of “Magdalene” given by the Concise Oxford Dictionary. But do these images describe the true Magdalene of the gospels? Or has history falsely labeled—and thus badly maligned—this devoted follower of Jesus?

Most likely, the surname Magdalene indicates Mary’s hometown. In first-century Palestine, Magdala was one of the largest towns around the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists today identify it with the excavated ruins of Magdal, located not far from Tiberias, where the hills reach down to the lakeshore.

Plagued by evil spirits, Mary Magdalene was healed by Jesus (Luke 8:2). Consequently, some have concluded that she was emotionally unstable, a volatile personality—and wouldn’t it then follow?—of questionable virtue. Adding to this impression, several early biblical commentators identified her with the unnamed penitent who anointed the feet of Jesus (Luke 7:36-50). While there’s no evidence at all in the gospels that Mary and the repentant woman were the same person, Mary Magdalene nonetheless became the stereotype of a reformed sinner. Actually, there’s no reason to think she had led an immoral life or been a prostitute. Rather, it’s much more probable that she suffered from epileptic seizures or a mental disorder. In other scenes described by Luke, Jesus’ casting out of evil spirits resulted in people being healed of epilepsy (9:38-42), the inability to speak (11:14), and curvature of the spine (13:10-13).

Among the women who accompanied Jesus in his ministry

Mary Magdalene was among the women who accompanied Jesus in his public ministry. Perhaps some of these women were relatives of Jesus. They may have been wealthy, supporting Jesus and his disciples with their resources. Some were young, and others were middle-aged and had sons who also followed this itinerant rabbi. But all these women had one thing in common: Their hearts had been deeply touched by Jesus, and as a result, their lives were changed.

Mary was probably among the crowd of followers who praised Jesus as he triumphantly entered Jerusalem. Did she, like many others in the holy city, expect him to deliver Israel from the Roman occupation? Less than a week later, Jesus was seized in Gethsemane, and his closest male disciples “deserted him and ran away” (Matthew 26:56). Perhaps they ran to find Mary Magdalene and the other women who followed Jesus to tell them of the master’s arrest.

We know from the gospels that there were women present at Golgotha: “There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him. Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 27:55-56; see also Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49). It is noteworthy that while many of the sons had fled, the mothers remained. John adds, “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25).

Mary Magdalene and her companions watched as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed Jesus’ body from the cross and laid him in the tomb (Luke 23:50-56; see also Matthew 27:59-61 and Mark 15:46-47). After the sabbath, they returned to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with spices (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1, 10). No thoughts of resurrection were in their minds. They hadn’t understood Jesus’ prophecies that he would be “raised on the third day” (Matthew 17:23; see also Mark 9:31). In their grief, these women simply sought to do one final service of love for him whom they had followed so faithfully, even to his grave.

The first witness to the risen Christ Mary Magdalene is the only woman named in all four gospel accounts of the resurrection. However, in John’s Gospel, Mary is the first witness to the risen Christ, and her moving encounter with Jesus conveys the pure joy she must have felt as she recognized her master.

Mary came to the tomb early on the first day of the week, as soon as the sabbath had ended. Distressed at not finding Jesus’ body there as expected, she ran to tell Simon Peter that it had been removed (John 20:1-2). On her return to the empty tomb, two angels questioned why she was weeping. However, consumed by grief, she persisted in her assumption that the body had been taken away—perhaps stolen by grave robbers (20:11-13). When Jesus himself stood near her, Mary even mistook him for the caretaker of the garden where the tomb was located (20:14-15).

How is it that Mary—who knew the one who had freed her from her demonic affliction so well—failed to recognize her beloved Lord? Perhaps her tears blinded her. She may have been so overwhelmed by sorrow that she was deceived by her own expectations, with no room in her heart to comprehend any other possibility than that of finding his corpse. Or maybe Jesus’ resurrected body was so totally and gloriously transformed that he was unrecognizable.

As if to probe Mary’s desire for him, Jesus asked, “Whom do you seek?” (John 20:15). Was she searching for the Lord or, with her limited understanding, for her preconceived image of him as she assumed him to be? When he said “Mary,” it was to his voice speaking her name that she finally responded with joyful recognition (20:16). The noted French writer Henri Daniel-Rops described this meeting vividly:

Then the unknown man spoke one word, “Mary,” and she looked at him, transfixed. . . . This one word

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sufficed to reawaken in the Magdalene the ardor and certainty of her faith. What Christian has not dreamed of hearing it, the word with which, from all eternity, God calls each one of us, but which the deaf do not hear. (Jesus and His Times)

With this single word, Jesus freed Mary again, this time from the hopelessness that had taken hold of her when she watched him die on the cross. The liturgical prayer known as the sequence, recited at Mass on Easter Monday, poetically imagines Mary’s early morning visit to the garden where Jesus was buried: “‘Tell us, Mary, what did you see on the way?’ ‘I saw the tomb of the now living Christ. I saw the glory of Christ, now risen. Christ my hope has risen!’”

When Mary heard her name, she turned and saw the Lord. In a surge of joy and relief she exclaimed, “Rabboni!”—an ecstatic pledge of her faith in Jesus and in his resurrection.

Called to share in the resurrection life of Jesus Mary Magdalene, the first to see the risen and glorified Lord, is most remembered for her Easter testimony. Present among the Galilean followers, at the crucifixion, and at the empty tomb, she was an eyewitness to the ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps she and the other women who shared the suffering at Golgotha and the joy of the resurrection supported one another in the coming years—and shared their memories with the believers who made up the early church. Some early writings state that Mary Magdalene later went to Ephesus with John and the mother of Jesus and was buried there.

In the Latin Church Mary Magdalene is known as apostola apostolorum or “female apostle to the male apostles.” When she proclaimed “I have seen the Lord!”, she was the first to convey the good news to the band of men who had been the closest to Jesus (John 20:18; see also Mark 16:9-10). Mary had accompanied Jesus from village to village, from Galilee to Jerusalem. With ardent love and perseverance, she had even followed him to Golgotha and the tomb. Her faith and constancy were rewarded on that first Easter morning, and she continued to follow Jesus as her risen and victorious Lord. Like Mary Magdalene, we too are called—each of us by name—to follow this same Lord and to share in his resurrection life.

Excerpt from My Lord and My God! A Scriptural Journey with the Followers of Jesus by Jeanne Kun (Copyright © 2004 by The Word Among Us Press). Used with permission.

This book can be purchased from The Word Among Us Press.

(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

Praise and Thanks

a scriptural orientation to worship Part IV

by Mike Shaughnessy

Sing to the Lord - illustration by Jamie Treadwell

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise the Lord for his mighty deeds; Praise him according to his exceeding greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; Praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with timbrel and dance; Praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; Praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! - Psalm 150

What does it mean to praise the Lord? One gets the impression from the last of the psalms—Psalm 150—that we are meant to praise the Lord. But what does it mean to praise the Lord?

In Hebrew, there are two main words which get translated “praise” in English. The first, “yadah”, literally means to hold out one's hand. This was a posture of worship. One we still use today. The second word, “halal”, is the basis for the word hallelujah, which literally translated is “praise the Lord” (halal-yadah). Two other words for praise in Hebrew mean “to jump for joy” and “to shout.” So, not surprisingly, a time of praise for us would normally include: lifting one's hands, cheering and clapping our hands or even jumping for joy!

In English praise means:

1) to express a favourable judgement, to commend; 2) to glorify especially by noting perfection. Thus, a mother expresses a favourable judgement, or praises, her new-born child simply for being and later commends her six year-old for faithfully brushing his teeth.

When we praise the Lord we speak or sing of his perfections. We honor or commend. When we look for synonyms for praise we find: acclaim, adore, applaud, bless, cheer, exalt, extol, exult, glorify, hallow, honor, laud, magnify, rejoice, revere, thank, venerate, and worship. These synonyms can help us understand what we do when we praise the Lord in our worship and give us the vocabulary to do it! We can actually prepare a sacrifice of praise.

What’s involved in worship? To worship intelligently, we should know what each of the above words actually mean. Here is a chance to learn. Take the following test and see how well you do. Match the words in the right hand column to their correct meaning, numbered at left. The correct answers are in the footnote. *

1. a shout of applause or joy acclaim

2. applaud loudly, hail adore

3. to effect even greater respect and esteem applaud

4. commend for their perfections venerate

5. express approval especially by clapping cheer

6. express gladness exalt

7. express gratitude extol

8. express God’s importance, worth and value exult

9. express our respect and esteem for God glorify

10. give God the highest position hallow

11. hallow by showing deference and respect honor

12. leap for joy (literally) rejoice (Psalm 68:3) laud

13. to note God’s splendour, beauty, or greatness magnify

14. praise above others revere

15. praise the Lord solemnly rejoice

16. reverence with deep unquestioning love praise

17. set apart as holy, unique thank

18. show devotion with tenderness of feeling bless

19. tell of God’s goodness worship .

Above we see that the words we use in describing the praise of the Lord are closely related but have different shades of meaning. It may be helpful to spell these out more clearly.

Worship is the key word we build on. To worship, as we noted above is to express the Lord’s importance, worth and value.

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The meaning of praise Praise is another key word. When we praise someone, including the Lord, we acknowledge or commend them for their perfections, that is their good qualities, or deeds. The words most closely related to praise are laud, extol and bless. To laud is to praise the Lord solemnly. To extol the Lord is to praise him above other things or gods. This is also closely related to the word exalt, which means to give the Lord the highest position. To bless the Lord is to tell of his goodness, a particular perfection. To thank him is to express gratitude, but it is also a form of praise for what he has done.

We often distinguish praise and worship. “Praise” is characterised by more joyful, louder, or more expressive ways of acclaiming God and his perfections. The songs we sing are more upbeat. “Worship” tends to be less loud, more reverent and profound. It is a more serious veneration or adoration of God. It is often accompanied by singing in tongues.

The meaning of honor A couple of words are synonyms for honor. To honor the Lord is to express our respect (awe) and esteem (appreciation of his value or worth). To magnify the Lord is to cause the Lord to be held in even greater respect and esteem, thus to increase his honor. Glorify is a very closely related word. It means to magnify (or in this case, to increase) his splendour, beauty, magnificence or greatness.

The meaning of reverence and adoration Several of these words pick up on the idea that God is holy, that is, utterly unique and set apart from all others, not least due to his righteousness (or rightness). To hallow is simply to acknowledge that God is holy, set apart, unique. To venerate is to hallow by showing deference, that is, to be humble relative to that which is great. It is an expression of respect. To revere is to show devotion or commitment to that which is holy. It also has an aspect of tenderness of feeling. To adore the Lord is a similar type of awe or respect, but implies even deeper affection and unquestioning love.

The meaning of rejoice Several words are related to the word rejoice. Rejoice means to express gladness and approval. To applaud is to rejoice or approve especially by clapping. Acclaim intensifies this and means to applaud loudly often while hailing or cheering. To cheer is to give a shout of joy. To exult literally means to leap for joy. It is a word for a stronger expression of joy.

The meaning of thanksgiving Finally, we come to thanksgiving. When I was a child, I was taught to say please and thank you. It was drilled into me! Even my older sisters made me say please! It was simply considered good manners.

Saying, “Please,” shows that we do not presume upon another to favor us. Saying, “Thank you,” expresses the same, but is gratitude that the other person has favored us. When we give thanks to God, we are acknowledging that we have no right to his favor and that we are grateful that he has bestowed it.

Note that thanksgiving is the word we use, not thanksthinking or thanksfeeling. Thanksgiving is an action. Of course, good thanksgiving also involves mentally acknowledging one's debt and feeling grateful. However, it’s not enough just to feel thankful; we are to give thanks to God, just as we should thank someone for a gift, not just feel thankful or think: that was nice.

God’s honor is our first concern

The scriptures teach us that we should honor God for who he is and what he has done. So praise and thanks constitute a significant portion of corporate prayer. We want God’s honor to be our first concern. Our needs and the needs of others are also important, but they take second place to honoring the Lord with praise and thanks.

I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to thee among the nations. For thy steadfast love is great to the heavens, thy faithfulness to the clouds. - Psalm 57:9-11

* acclaim = 2, adore = 16, applaud = 5, bless = 19, cheer = 1, exalt = 10, extol = 14, exult = 12, glorify = 13, hallow = 17, honour = 9, laud = 15, magnify = 3, praise = 4, rejoice = 6, revere = 18, thank = 7, venerate = 11, worship = 8.

[Mike Shaughnessy is an elder in The Servants of the Word and the Director of Kairos in North America (formerly known as the Director of the North American Regional Youth Program of The Sword of the Spirit)]

(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

photo of Mount Lebanon by Jamie Treadwell

Called for These Times

A brief history of the People of God community in Beirut

by a founding member

When the People of God community first began in Lebanon, its members did not know they were about to be plunged into a civil war that would decimate their country and threaten their lives. The encouragement they received from other Christian communities made it possible for the members of this community to stay in Lebanon and surive the 15-year war, helping to maintain hope and vision for the future. Now the community is playing an important role in revitilization of the local Catholic and Orthodox churches. A founding member and former senior leader of the People of God, recounts the early history of the community.

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Beginnings The People of God community in Lebanon traces its beginnings to August of 1969 when a young Lebanese university instructor encountered the Catholic charismatic renewal movement in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. As a result of his experience, a prayer group of university faculty and students started up in Beirut in mid-September of that year, when he returned home.

In 1974, the local parish run by Cappucin priests invited the French Father H. Manteau de Bonamy to preach during the Lenten season. He had recently experienced the Catholic charismatic renewal, and his preaching led to our expansion into parish life in Lebanon.

Life in the Spirit Seminars followed, and by the summer of 1975 the charismatic renewal movement was thriving in the Beirut area with many people attending the weekly prayer meetings that we hosted.

men praying together during a community weekend men's retreat

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The war years in Lebanon The wars in Lebanon erupted in April of 1975. The Lord had prepared us initially for this major upheaval and for the challenging years that were to follow. But the final preparation came when a group of us felt called by the Lord to leave Lebanon for a period beginning in October of 1975. Eighteen of us went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, for a crucial period of bonding among ourselves and with The Word of God community located there. By April of 1976 we had firmly committed ourselves to God’s call to live a shared life as a community in taking a name, People of God. Our commitment together was formalized with a community covenant.

In the spring of 1976, we responded to the Lord’s invitation to return to Lebanon at what was perhaps the worst period of the wars in our land. For five months we continued to live together in a set of apartments in Beirut. The process of growing together as a people that had been in place for us during our stay in Ann Arbor went on to further maturity as we deepened our relationships, while ministering hope to people in the limited area we could reach because of the war.

September 1976 witnessed the next step in God’s careful plan to equip us for the years to come. We felt his call to come out of the enclosed area around the universities and into the broader area that had become the “Christian” heartland in Lebanon.

Public meetings and Life in the Spirit Seminars resumed at the parish church of the same Cappucin priest who had hosted us in 1974. With the shifting areas of political influence, the parish by 1976 was on the border of the Christian area. The number of people coming to our weekly prayer meetings increased rapidly, and in one year’s

time we felt called to move more deeply into the heartland. This proved once again God’s careful shepherding, for soon after our peaceful move the border area became the scene of constant warfare. This new location has been the center of our activities ever since. A Maronite bishop was happy to let us take over his vacated family home, and in the recent past we purchased it from him, and now have with God’s grace built a permanent center for the charismatic renewal movement on that site.

The new Center, watercolor by David Kurani

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Two main periods of community development

Two main periods are recognizable in God’s ongoing faithful providence for us.

I. Foundation building period - 1976-1989: The years between 1976 and 1989 were a period of establishing the People of God as a stable, growing community, along with building solid relations with local church authorities, and a period of expansion through prayer meetings (reaching 1200 attendance at one point in the war) and Life in the Spirit Seminars (attracting up to 600 for a single annual Life in the Spirit Seminar).

During this period, we also built some solid structures to serve the growing numbers of people who wanted to participate in the charismatic renewal movement. In 1986 we developed a “Movement of renewal in the Holy Spirit” (with the important help of the Ligaya ng Paginoon community from Manila, Philippines) to cater to the swelling numbers that could not be incorporated in the People of God community. All of this activity and expansion took place in the midst of constant and severe wartime circumstances. Indispensable to all this was our being a Christian community and not just a spiritual movement or prayer group.

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The People of God is a multi-cultural, ecumenical community of some 300 adult members and their children. Members belong to Catholic and Orthodox churches in Lebanon, including Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Maronites (Catholics), Greek Catholics, Syriac Catholics, Chaldean Catholics, and Catholic Copts.

The community celebrated its 30th anniversary in May 2006.

II. Institutional structure-building period from 1989 to the present: The second crucial phase – and vital to our survival long-term and transgenerationally – saw a further development to put in place the necessary structures that would ensure our ability to go on beyond our early growth. The focus is on clearer procedures and the fostering of strong personal relationships to support our ongoing expansion, both internally as a covenant community and externally in outreach movements.

Our contacts have continued with leaders of the various churches our community members belong to and are bearing good fruit (our work has been solidly ecumenical from the outset, reaching out to the eight or more Christian churches in Lebanon). We have been asked by bishops to help with Christian renewal groups in neighboring Arab countries as well as in other parts of Lebanon. Our main leaders have also been called to serve internationally in building up the international Sword of the Spirit.

University Christian Outreach sponsors evangelistic seminars, retreats, sharing groups, and service opportunities to university students in Beirut.

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Our community outreach ministries include a family-based renewal movement (called "Living Hope"), an evangelistic outreach program to university students (called "University Christian Outreach"), a youth outreach program, public prayer meetings, and other outreaches as well. Taken together they involve more than 2,000 people. We are currently holding a Life in the Spirit Seminar for 700 people.

Current situation “It is for these times that I have called you.” We have heard this word throughout our life in community, but have been hearing it with greater urgency more recently. Thus when on July 12 of this year a fresh outbreak of war erupted, we were not at all surprised. Rather we ask the Lord to continue to shepherd us and protect us from sin, faithlessness, and division, and that we might be a instrument in his hands that he wishes to use for these times.

Last May some 80 community members traveled from Beirut to Tyre to visit with Greek Catholic Archbishop George Bakouni at his residence, along with the Maronite Catholic Bishop and Orthodox Bishop of Tyre. [See related article by Archbishop Bakouni.]

The current situation has been particularly malicious, as the spiritual war rages beneath the external strife. A special pressure now is put on all young people to emigrate – this perhaps is the ugliest face of the current battle. Vying with it is the ever-present enemy of civil hatred and strife.

We invite you to join with us in praying that we play our part in remembering that our enemy in not “flesh and blood”(Ephesians 6:12) and that a deep love for and witness to our non-Christian fellow citizens be nurtured and maintained. Otherwise we lose our “saltiness” (Mark 9:50) and our clear call to be a “message” as a nation. The late Pope John Paul II, after he had visited Lebanon, said, “Lebanon is more than a nation – it is a message for the world.” That message entails Christians and Muslims living together as children of Abraham. I believe that this is possible only if Christians live out their true witness and avoid resentment, hatred, and prejudice.

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(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

Awakened to Eternity

a spiritual journey of poems reflecting on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ

by Jeanne Kun

■ Gethsemane ■ I Have Graven You upon My Palms ■ Pietà■ Laid to Rest■ Awakened to Eternity

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email: editor@swordofthespirit.net

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

Crucifixion - gouache and charcoal

By His Stripes

We Are Healed

artwork and reflections on Christ's victory through his cross and resurrection

by Jamie Treadwell

a criminal’s death the universe torn and scarred

flesh that’s torn to raise those of flesh to glory

By His Stripes Healed - acrylic

By His Stripes Healed - Easter, acrylic

transformed and cleansed the stripes of healing break the curse of sin

The Cross… the Tree of Life (from writings of Hippolytus, AD 200)

The tree is my everlasting salvation. It is my food, a shared banquet. Its roots and the spread of its branches are my own roots and extension… Its shade I take for my resting place; in my flight from oppressive heat it is the source of refreshing dew for me… Food for my hunger and wellspring for my thirst, it is also covering for my nakedness, with the spirit of life as its leaves… Fearful of God, I find in it a place of safety; when unsteady a source of stability. In the face of a struggle, I look to it as a prize; in victory my trophy.

It is Jacob’s ladder, the passage of angels, at whose summit the Lord is affixed. This tree, the plant of immortality, rears from earth to reach as high as heaven, fixing the Lord between heaven and earth. It is the foundation and stabilizer of the universe, undergirding the world that we inhabit. It is the binding force of the world… It is riveted into a unity by the invisible bonds of the Spirit, so that its connection with God can never be severed. Brushing heaven with its uppermost branches, it remains fixed in the earth, and between the two points, its huge hands completely enfold the stirring

Easter Tree

Aquarelle, 2005

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

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of the air. A single whole, it penetrates all things and all places.

Jamie Treadwell is a noted artist who works in pastels, watercolors and acrylics. He is a member of The Servants of the Word, a lay missionary brotherhood of men living single for the Lord, and he is the Regional Youth Program Director of Kairos in Europe and the Middle-East, the international youth program of The Sword of the Spirit.

(c) copyright 2007 The Sword of the Spirit publishing address: Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, Suite 108, London NW10 7LQ, United Kingdom

email: editor@swordofthespirit.net.

April 2007 - Vol. 7

A Spiritual Journey of Poems for Passiontide and Easter by Jeanne Kun

Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, by El Greco 1541-1614

Gethsemane

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. —Matthew 26:41

What battles you fought (and won!) that night beneath the shadows of Gethsemane as the trio of your close companions slept on in ignorance and sorrow. (Job, too, knew scant comfort from those three friends who came to sit beside him in his trials.)

There your soul was tormented and twisted like the gnarled trunks of the olive trees standing watch (what sacred secrets they witnessed and still keep in silver-leafed silence) as Satan seized that opportune time (long awaited since his failures in the wilderness) to test and try you once again.

Your sweat fell (wrung and pressed from you in anguish

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like the oil running down the olive press nearby), mingled with those first drops of your blood that was before long to run so freely from your veins.

Terror and distress must have taunted and mocked your resolve and made a tight knot in your stomach as you anticipated and recoiled from the pain and agony soon to come to you.

As you knelt in earnest prayer (so full of dread, yet in determined obedience) did you first feel that your Father’s heart was as merciless and unyielding as the cold rock you leaned against?

And yet you won through those fearful hours and the temptations that laid siege to you, strengthened by an angel (who surely trembled at the horror—and the privilege— of being sent on such mission) till all that remained was to drink to the dregs the cup you willingly took up, now sure it was not to be removed from you, holding fast to your Father’s will that all (I, too) might be restored to him.

Readied now, go to receive Judas’ traitorous kiss and greet your captors.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Jeanne Kun

> next poem: I Have Graven You Upon My Palms

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

A Spiritual Journey of Poems for Passiontide and Easter by Jeanne Kun

The Crucifixion, by El Greco 1541-1614

I Have Graven You upon My Palms I have graven you upon my palms. —Isaiah 49:16

Long ago your hands clung ’round Mary’s neck, tiny fingers twining her hair about them while she hugged you to her breast. Later Joseph held your boy-hand secure within his firm grasp as you walked the road together on your first pilgrimage to Jerusalem and taught those hands to handle lathe and plane rough wood beams to smooth usefulness.

Your hands blessed and healed, tousled the curly heads of the children who flocked around you, and wrote in the dust as the elders looked on,

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hoping to ensnare you, too, in the trap laid for the adulteress.

Raised in thanksgiving, your hands multiplied the loaves and fishes and broke bread to feed your disciples’ hunger with much more than crushed wheat.

Then those same hands that washed soiled feet (and stained, sin-encrusted souls) were wrenched and held fast, forced to the crossbeam as the executioner plied open your fingers and drove iron through your palms, inscribing my name upon them.

Tendons mangled and severed, nerves vibrating in agony, muscles contorted in tight spasms— those hands were made useless except to hold you pinioned to the cross as your body sagged, its weight straining and pressing raw against the nails.

Your hands, once so wounded and so bloodied, still bear the hard-won battle scars— now a sign of victory and glory and record of the price you paid for me.

These wounds indelibly written upon your flesh plead on my behalf before the throne of God where you stand and never cease to intercede as the Lamb slain for me.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Jeanne Kun

> next poem: Pietà

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

A Spiritual Journey of Poems for Passiontide and Easter by Jeanne Kun

Pietà, by El Greco 1541-1614

Pietà

How sore your grief, Mary, as you hold the cold and lifeless body of your son (once warm with beating heart in your own womb) all bloodied now by death, and cradle in your arms for one last time him whom you so often held upon your breast.

Sharing in his pain and passion, you looked on in agony as the hands that clung as infant’s around your neck and those feet that pattered long ago about the cozy home in Nazareth were cruelly wrenched and nailed fast.

I wonder:

Had you spoken in quiet hours together of the prophecies and their mysteries?

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Had you—with motherly intuition— read your son’s heart and the shadow that hung over him? In your nights of pondering, did you gather strength for this inevitable day?

And now, with a mother’s knowing heart, can you perceive that this stiffening form upon your lap (a piece of torn humanity that tabernacles divinity within) will soon breathe again and brim and pulse with life, all gloriously transfigured?

Looking through the darkness there at Golgotha, do you already see in your mind’s eye the new dawn promised in three days’ time and tremble to feel again your child’s glad embrace?

O wait no longer, Mary, to entrust him to the grave! Surrender your son now to Joseph’s tomb, that he might rest awhile from the battle bravely fought and then descend to death’s domain to claim from Satan there the victory so hard won for us.

Copyright (c) 1998, 2003 by Jeanne Kun

> next poem: Laid to Rest

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email: editor@swordofthespirit.net

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

A Spiritual Journey of Poems for Passiontide and Easter by Jeanne Kun

The Entombment, by Raphael 1583-1520

Laid to Rest

The women keep silent vigil, watching over the sagging, twisted body hanging limply now upon the cross. Light and life and breath are gone from his frame. Stillness reigns, bringing with it relief from the heavy horror of the day’s events.

Joseph of Arimathea bravely declares himself, claiming in death what he had feared in life. He unfastens the broken body from the crossbeam, careful not to further wound the flesh so bruised and torn by nails. What reverence for the tabernacle that gave human form to God!

Mary cradles her son in her arms as she so often had when he laid his soft infant cheek upon her breast.

Her hand gently caresses the bloodied, cold brow and tenderly closes the sightless eyes before she gives him over to the grave.

(Mary, what were your thoughts then? Did your son’s words of life and resurrection echo in your ears? Beneath your grief and sorrow, did hope that he might rise and live again stir deeply in your mother’s heart and sustain you in quiet expectation?)

Now he rests from salvation’s work and pain, the sleep of death upon him as he’s enshrouded in linen. Sweet spices surround and perfume his wounded corpse.

Darkness falls as the stone is rolled in place. Yet a deeper darkness invades and fills the rock-hewn sepulchre, reaching into its narrow confines and encircling the body it now holds as in a womb.

Soon morning light will dawn upon the stone-cold tomb, warming its icy hardness. But greater light shines from within, glowing and pulsing with new life and waiting to find release. No guard set there to vigilantly keep watch (and hold death within its chamber) will stay his power to burst forth.

For he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. . . . His going forth is as sure as the dawn. —Hosea 6:1-3

O Sun of Righteousness, night’s shadows must fade before the glory of your rising Triumph now over death’s dark domain, and spread the radiance of your newly-won dominion over us!

Copyright (c) 1998, 2004 by Jeanne Kun

> next poem: Awakened to Eternity

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April 2007 - Vol. 7

A Spiritual Journey of Poems for Passiontide and Easter by Jeanne Kun

"Noli Me Tangere" (Do Not Touch Me) by Titian, 1511-12

Awakened to Eternity

I The day of rest past— rest prescribed by law, rest that refreshed her body and eased the fatigue of the harrowing day spent at Golgotha, yet brought no relief to her grief— Mary [Magdalene] made her way early to the garden where the priceless treasure of her master’s body lay, that tabernacle so cruelly ransacked and emptied of the glow of life.

Night’s veil was not yet lifted from the earth, but already a faint glimmer spilled over the horizon’s edge, pushing back the shadows .

and spreading its soft light through the garden as Mary entered there. Yet even as the dawn began to break, desolate darkness and black fear blinded her eyes, for she’d come in one last act of kindness to anoint her Beloved with sweet spices— and found the tomb and grave cloths empty and his body gone!

“O Gardener, tell me where you’ve laid my Lord, that I might see him once again!”

Then Mary heard her name as only he could speak it and knew him in the sound of it. Joy rushed in upon her, and in the morning sun, her heart was filled (like the garden ’round about her) with new life and vitality.

II I too seek my Lord with love’s longing.

Now go to him, my soul. You’ll find him (as Mary did so long ago) waiting for you in the garden as in a lovers’ trysting place.

In that fair place where seed has fallen to its death (buried in its own earthen grave beside his tomb) and now springs forth in fruitfulness and fragrance, he wipes away all tears and speaks my name in voice my ears have ever strained to hear, restorer of my life and herald of my wakening into eternity.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeanne Kun

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