Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

Christ is Risen, Alleluia! April 5, 2010

IMG_3955This image is from the only procession that takes place on Easter Sunday in Seville, Spain concluding a week-long series of processions to commemorate Holy Week. Seville may be one of the most beautiful places in the world to spend Holy Week.

The most powerful procession I witnessed began at around midnight on Good Friday at the Church of El Senor del Gran Poder [Lord of Great Power], patron of the city. After hundreds of penitents left the church, finally the image emerged carried by about twenty young men. I imagined the statue would be of Jesus seated in triumph as a great ruler, but rather, it was of Jesus carrying his cross. It caught me by surprise, but then again, it did not. It gave me a chance to reflect on the cross, that the cross is the source of Jesus’ power.

As Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Philipians about Jesus,

“Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” IMG_3948

This meditation happened while I stood in the middle of a square packed with thousands of people, yet you could have heard a pin drop. All of a sudden, a woman began to sing from a balcony a beautiful song as the statue passed by. It was a saeta, a religious song composed with haunting Moorish tones.

The most famous and acclaimed procession is that of Our Lady of La Macarena, patroness of Seville. Do not be confused, the song came after the devotion to Our Lady of La Macarena.

All these pictures are mine, all rights reserved


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