HOPE AND HISTORY RHYME

 

HOPE AND HISTORY RHYME

A two-meter tall crucifix dominates the wall behind the altar in Arrupe University College chapel in Harare. I have always thought it odd the arms are bent, as if the body is not hanging on the cross. It is as though the figure is standing on a foot rest with arms out stretched to enfold the gazer in a hug. The thorns are there with the bruises and the nails but it is as though he says, ‘Now, at last, I have done what I came to do: to gather you in my arms and present you to my Father and your Father.’

Advent comes to us in many moods. We speak of joyful anticipation but the priest dresses in purple, a symbol of suffering as well as imperial power. We speak of the lamb lying down with the lion and a little child playing at the hole of a python. These images of peace come to us with the rejection of John the Baptist and the child born in a stable because ‘there is no room’. And then we have this image: of Jesus on the cross coming towards us with open arms.

As this year closes, the bad news abounds seemingly on every continent. There are so many stressed with insecurity, hunger and oppression. Yet we need to remind each other that there is One who knows our pain and suffers with us. He does not come down from his cross but invites us to find our place on our cross. Then our hope and our poetry of peace will blossom. Listen to Seamus Heaney:

          Human beings suffer,

          They torture one another …

History says, don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up,

 And hope and history rhyme.

The Cure at Troy

In the midst of distress it is hard to receive the message of hope. Yet the very distress itself is the ore from which hope can be refined. The One who comes to meet us is still on the Cross. And it is on that cross that we will find our life.

17 December 2023      Advent 3B                   Is 61:1…11     1 Th 5:16-24     Jn 1: 6…28