Today hell groans and cries aloud

From Merecomments:

...On Holy Saturday morning, hell is again a subject in the hymnography, and this time is personified and speaks.

Today hell groans and cries aloud: "It had been better for me, had I not accepted Mary's Son, for He has come to me and destroyed my power; He has shattered the gates of brass, and as God He has raised up the souls that once I held."

Today hell groans and cries aloud: "My dominion has been swallowed up; the Shepherd has been crucified and he has raised Adam. I am deprived of those whom once I ruled; in my strength I devoured them, but now I have cast them forth. He who was crucified has emptied the tombs; the power of death has no more strength." Glory to Thy Cross, O Lord, and to the Resurrection.

This "hell"  is the "sheol" in the Old Testament, or "hades," the place of the dead, not the final hell of the last judgement.

Glory is given, in the last line, to both Cross and Resurrection, and one might add the smashing of the gates of death. There is a Gospel reference, also to the phrase above "emptied the tombs"--Matthew 27:52--"the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised."

Sermons that simply assert vague notions about life after death, how the soul lives on in some fashion, and do not preach what the Scriptures teach, are not delivering to their hearers much more than beliefs in immortality you might find in various cultures at various times. The Gospel is earthshaking news, not philosophy about eternal values and hope and springtime. The Resurrection is the ending of a cosmic battle. Or just the beginning. Accept nothing less than that Good News. (read the whole thing here)

A Change of Heart

"When you get a new heart does it change which hand you write with?"

This was the question I got from my 9 year old at lunch today. He is currently rather fixated on open heart surgery, a subject he had brought up a few days earlier ( I don't know where or how he came upon the subject) and had asked this latest question after mulling over the process the last couple of days.

"What do you mean?" I asked.
"When you get a new heart, does it change you from a right handed writer to a left handed writer."
"I think that process is found in the brain, not the heart", I explained.
"so when you get a brain transplant..." he went on.
"No, they don't do brain transplants, yet" I said, visions of Young Frankenstein" and "Abby Normal's" transplant spring to mind. "If they did, your mom would have had me on the donar list already," I added.
"What?" he said.
"Nevermind."

But it started me thinking on this Holy Saturday, of the new heart that is available to us.

The devotional readings for today begin with the Genesis story of creation. The Genesis reading ends on the seventh day when God rested from His labors. Approriate for Holy Saturday. The work is finished. But a new beginning is but hours away and it is offered to us sinners, who but a short while ago drove the nails and denied the Son of God.

A few days ago David Goldman over at First Things had a wonderful reflection on the Jewish Passover recitation from Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 10:25: “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you and on the families that do not call your name; For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him and have laid waste his habitation.” Jeremiah is hardly the only prophet to call divine wrath down upon the pagans. Obadiah writes, “For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.” (Obadiah 1:16) For the Greeks, non-being is a paradox; for the Jews it is a curse, for nothing is more terrible than to be forever cut off from the Source of Being....

He goes on to explain,

All these derive from Exodus 17:4, in which God says, “I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” and commands Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,” that is, make a special effort to remember to the erase the memory of Amelek.” That is yet another example of how characteristic Jewish humor derives from the Hebrew Scriptures. Later (I Samuel 15:3) God instructs King Saul through the prophet Samuel to exterminate the entire tribe. When Saul allows his army to loot the Amalekite cattle rather than to kill the tribe, he is excoriated by Samuel. Once a year, Jewish congregations read these passages from Exodus and I Samuel in tandem, and call aloud the divine injunction, “Do not forget!”

All of which, he says may sound a bit harsh to our tender modern ears and to Christians you may suppose that,

a New Covenant of love has superseded the allegedly vengeful world of the Old Testament. Did not Jesus say, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”? (Matthew 5:45-46)

But while different we are strognly unite Goldman points out, because,

(e)ither way, Amalek must die. The Jews are instructed to kill off the tribe of Amalek, while every Christian must kill the Amalekite within him. Christianity wants each individual member of the tribe of Amalek to die to this world and be reborn into the nation of Israel, Amalek’s most hated enemy. Christian converts from the pagan nations still carry their Gentile nature within them. To say that a Christian must be converted every day is to say that the Christian must kill this inner Amalekite every day....

...“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” says Jesus (John 12:25). Self-sacrifice is the price of eternal life. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac, and therefore himself, was the foundation of God’s Covenant with Abraham and his descendants. God’s love removes us from the altar; a ram substitutes for Isaac so that Abraham may live, and in Christian doctrine, Jesus of Nazareth sacrifices himself for all of mankind. To be a Jew is to continue the life of Abraham; to be a Christian is to die to this world and be reborn in the spirit into the life of Abraham. ...

The article goes on to remind us that excessive tolerance has terrible results, a lesson surely relevant for our modern world (you can read it here)but one off the point of this posting.

The point is that the God's self-sacrifice has made possible for all of us, a new beginning. From the wounded and sacred heart of God flows new life and a new heart for us all.

O Christ, look with favor on our aspiration and prayers, and make prosperous to us this coming holy night of Easter, that in it we may rise from the deadand pass over unto life. Amen -Old Gallican Collect

Good Friday- "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?"

Over at Daily Reflections- scriptural notes to be used with the St James Daily Devotional Guide (but also quite useful on their own) on this Good Friday:

...This is the event by which the false gods are defeated (verse 1). These are the demonic forces brought to naught by the death of the First Born. Questioned about the marks of the wounds in His flesh, the Lord responds, “These wounds I received in the house of My friends” (verse 6).

Cyril of Alexandria wrote in the fifth century: “when the Only Begotten Word of God ascended into the heavens in the flesh to which He was united, there was something new to be seen in the heavens. The multitude of holy angels was astounded, seeing the King of glory and the Lord of hosts being made in a form like ourselves. . . . Then the angels asked this, ‘What are these wounds in Your hands?’ And He said to them, ‘These wounds I received in the house of My friends.’” These are the wounds that He will show to His disciples after His resurrection. He bears these wounds in his glorified flesh forever, as He stands before the Father, “as though slain,” being the one Mediator between God and Man (Revelation 5:6). ...


...At last is answered that question first put by the Magi, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" (2:2:2)

He is on the cross, the just Man dying for the sins of the world.

Thus, the dream of Pilate's wife, which had revealed Jesus to be a just Man, completes the earlier dream of the Magi. The testimony from the East is matched by the testimony from the West, both cases representing those regarding whom Jesus commanded His Church, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (28:19).(more)

The Passion Narrative according to the Gospel of John - a Good Friday Tradition

This week Christians around the world relive the final days of Christ’s life on earth. Our observances of these ancient events are as varied and as personal as each of our relationships with Him, and serve to prepare our hearts for the unspeakable gift of his suffering, his death, and his glorious resurrection. Paraclete invites you to take part in a Good Friday tradition that dates back to the eighth century, with the chanting of the Passion Narrative according to Saint John. Take half an hour apart from the events of the day, and listen to these sacred words, chanted by monastic members of the Gloriae Dei Cantores Schola, in Latin, in Gregorian chant. (more)

Spy Wednesday

Today (what is left of it) is Spy Wednesday, because Judas was spying out an opportunity to betray Jesus. Over at Dialogue there is some discussion about whether Judas did what he did thinking that Jesus would escape as he had so many times before.

In recent years I have been struck by the contrat between Peter and Judas. both betrayed Jesus but both reacted differently. While Peter turned back toward God and forgivness, Judas turned back on himself.

It is a reminder that no matter how far we think we are from God, we are no further than we choose to be. Wiyh broen and contrite spirit we can always turn back to God. And our God, not wishing that anyone should perish, is always willing to take us back.