{"id":5897,"date":"2013-03-26T05:00:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2013-03-25T17:17:56","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T00:17:56","slug":"reflections-for-holy-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/michaboyett\/2013\/03\/reflections-for-holy-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections for Holy Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cFor What Binds Us\u201d Copyright \u00a9 2012 Jan Richardson<\/a> Images. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Binding<\/h3>\n

by Cathy Song<\/p>\n

We love them more than life,
\nthese children who are born to us.<\/p>\n

How did Mary endure it?
\nIt was more than she bargained for,
\nthe white lily light,
\nthe passive acceptance of the sacred seed.
\nFor the daughter of the well at dusk,
\nit was a moment of vanity.
\nHe had taken notice.<\/p>\n

He was like the stranger
\nwho rides into town,
\nwho in his worldliness
\nsees the gullible girl
\nand sweeps her off her feet.
\nHe takes her by storm,
\nthere is nothing subtle about Him,
\nthe whirlwind courtship,
\nthe messengers trumpeting exotic flowers.<\/p>\n

The night she opened the window,
\nit was raining flowers,
\nas she knew it would be,
\nand it covered her,
\nlike a wedding dress,
\nlike snow.<\/p>\n

But the child in her arms was real.
\nThe weight of him was real.
\nAnd in her diligence\u2013
\nthe setting of the evening bread upon the table,
\nthe terror any mother feels
\nin a crowded marketplace
\nwhen for an instant
\nshe thinks her child is missing\u2013
\nshe thought
\nHe might relent, choose another,
\nand she could live anonymously with her son
\namong the dwellers of the earth,
\nthe carpenters, the fishermen, and the thieves.<\/p>\n

Once she held him, she was lost.
\nHer body turned against her,
\nwas made maternal
\nso that she saw nothing else
\nbut the child who walked further each day into light.
\nHow could she have known this?
\nThat the son would resist her
\nevery attempt to bind him,
\nthat in his loneliness he would belong
\nto everyone and to no one,
\nforfeit what welled within her
\nin order to save the nameless, the cripple, the unspeakable.<\/p>\n

She was duped into thinking
\nwhen the time came
\nshe could give the child up,
\nand in exchange for the son, her sacrifice,
\nshe could receive the heavenly reward:
\nimmortality,
\ncandles and cathedrals,
\ninexhaustible light\u2013
\nthe thousand statues of herself.<\/p>\n

Who would want such eternal life?
\nBetter the grunt and toil,
\nthe hog\u2019s blissful sleep,
\na child who needed her.
\nShe prayed that He might forget the pact.
\nAnd then the praying stopped.
\nWhy call attention to herself?
\nLet silence be her accomplice
\nand with the less devout she could slip
\nunnoticed with her son toward a simpler destiny.
\nLike fugitives, always under the cover of night.<\/p>\n

In the son\u2019s greatest hour,
\nhe loved her
\nnot more, not less
\nthan he loved the soldier who wept at his feet.
\nIt was cruel to ask that of her,
\nof any woman allowed to bear that weight.<\/p>\n

from Cathy Song\u2019s Frameless Windows, Squares of Light<\/a><\/em>, 1988, Penguin Books.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the eyes of Christ which see the splendor of God\u2019s light are the same eyes which have seen the lowliness of God\u2019s people. The same eyes that penetrate God\u2019s eternal mystery have also seen into the innermost being of men and women, who are created in God\u2019s image. They saw Simon, Andrew, James, Philip, Nathaniel and Levi and called them to dicipleship. They saw Mary of Magdala, the widow of Naim, the lame, the lepers and the hungry crowd and offered the healing and new life. They saw the sadness of the rich young ruler, the fear of the disciples on the lake, the loneliness of his own mother under the cross and the sorrow of the women at the tomb\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

From\u00a0Behold the Beauty of the Lord<\/a><\/em>, Henry Nouwen (55-56)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\n\u201cPresent therefore in their daily celebration of the eucharist and at the saying of their offices is this reminder that death is part of life. It is of course a vivid visual statement of what St Benedict is saying in the Rule, \u2018Keep death daily before your eyes\u2019 (4.47). But he is also simultaneously saying, \u2018Look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing\u2019 (49.7). So once again he expects us to hold two things in tension. Death and life are inseparable. Dying and behold we live. Here is the ultimate in contradiction. Here is utter foolishness to the point of absurdity. We lose our life to gain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living with Contradiction<\/a><\/em> by Esther de Waal (113-114)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Binding by Cathy Song We love them more than life, these children who are born to us. How did Mary endure it? It was more than she bargained for, the white lily light, the passive acceptance of the sacred seed. For the daughter of the well at dusk, it was a moment of vanity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-5897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-praying-life","tag-holy-week"],"yoast_head":"\nReflections for Holy Tuesday - Micha Boyett<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Binding by Cathy Song We love them more than life, these children who are born to us. How did Mary endure it? 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