The Scar
**
Propers for Trinity 4
There is a scar ripped right across the face of creation. I trust that you have seen it. I know that you have felt it.
It is the tsunami. It is Hurricane Katrina. It is every flood and landslide in the third world that is slightly reported or ignored by the American media and by us. It is every natural disaster that afflicts the world.
The scar is also 9/11. It is the recently remembered London bombing (7/7). It is abortion. It is Fidel Castro's prisons. It is every evil perpetrated by man against man.
The scar is a man beating his wife. It is a mother ignoring her daughter. It is a business owner cheating his employees. It is the sins that make us cringe. It is the pecadillos that we have made peace with. It is all the things that we do to one another.
The scar is a man at the Picadilly eating himself to death. The scar is his girlfriend in the bathroom purging and starving herself. It is drug abuse and alcoholism. It is cutting. It is pornography. It is prayerlessness. It is all the things we do to ourselves.
The scar is real. The scar speaks of pain and privation and corruption. The scar is visible on me. You will see it in the mirror and in the faces of your friends. The scar is on your newborn baby struggling to focus on his Winnie the Pooh mobile.
The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.
We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. The Incarnation has taught us that God is going to redeem the creation. The Resurrection announces that death and its comrades are defeated. We may participate in that process now as we look to its final realization.
We show mercy, forgive and give generously. We do not judge or condemn.
Yes, we fail. Yes, we fall short. Yes, our lives are a mixture. At times we forgive. Then we hold a grudge. Today we are tight-fisted. Tomorrow we write a check to support a South American orphanage. We're a mess but we're God's mess.
Without God nothing is strong, nothing is holy. Without the Incarnate Christ we are all blind men falling and causing others to fall into ditches. Take heart. There is a balm in Gilead. We have a Great Physician who has provided the medicine of immortalitt. We receive it as the Eucharist. It may take time, but we can be healed of our blindness. We can take part in the healing of others.
There was a man named Jesus who lived with his eyes wide open. He saw the scar and did not flich. He put his hands on those who asked him to heal them. Those who denied that they were scarred killed him. In the end, he embraced the scar. He bears it forever. He lives forever to help those who want to be healed and who want to see others healed. His Father sends his Spirit to gather whoever will be gathered into his Body, the place where healing is accomplished.
I wish we could attach a ritual to our Rogations Days, the days when we thank God for the fruits of the earth and pray for his blessing upon it. It would be similar to the ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. I want us to pass a bowl of ashes around the congregation. Each person must apply the ashes is a slash mark across the face of the person next to them.
We pass the peace to one another. We light one another's candles at the Tenebrae Service. We should also recognize that we are responsible for scarring one another. A ritual and a sign would help.
At the end of the day we could go to a family member or friend. We could wipe the scars off of each other's faces. In doing so we would be proclaiming the fact that as we have hurt one another, so we may participate in God's healing of one another. The working out of Christ's atonement takes place in community, in the sacramental life of the Church.
I do not really want to invent a new ritual for the Church. I am too young and too ignorant to be responsible for adding or subtracting from our worship. However, I thought that painting a picture might serve our "faith seeking understanding" as we see the scar and move towards its final healing.
The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.
Propers for Trinity 4
Hack away.
Filed in Theology, Suffering
Related Tags: Atonement, Redemption, Jesus Christ, Suffering, Eschatology, Second Coming, Sanctification, Incarnation
posted by axegrinder @ 6:21 AM
4 Comments:
The ritual of both "scarring" another's face and then removing it at the end of the day is well thought out. We are wounded in relationships; we are also healed in relationships. Enjoyed the post.
Jason, this is an incredible piece you've written. Powerful, powerful stuff. I'm going to quote an except an link to your site.
It is the acceptance of our falleness that leads to our transformation in Christ. The highest virtue is humility that leads to pure love, and sometimes the road to it is very rocky indeed. God often lets us fall into sins we think offend Him greatly, but it would be even an even greater danger if we never fell at all. That is why it is so unnnerving to read such works as the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus- you often feel after reading it that you are in a lose-lose situation.
Only there however does God begin to act. Keep your mind in hell and despair not, says St. Silouan of Mt. Athos. It is good for you to feel carnal, sinful and good for nothing. And God finds newer and better ways to make us feel this way, even if we think we know all of His ways.
Well done, Jason. This kind of thing from your heart and mind serves us well. I agree with Martin above. The practice -- ritual or no -- would have some merit.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home