Fighting without expectation of victory

Posted on by albrooke
In re-reading The Lord of the Rings, I have been struck by the determination of the Fellowship (particularly Frodo) to press on without any reason to believe in the final success of the mission.  F. Scott Fitzgerald had something to say about that:
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Pasting It Together,” Esquire, March 1936.

It is a nearly necessary characteristic for the criminal defense attorney as well — many, of course, have been driven to drink, instead.

Risen!

Posted on by albrooke

Now, did He really break the seal
     And rise again? We dare not say;
     But conscious unbelievers feel
     Quite sure of Judgement Day.

    

Meanwhile, a silence on the cross,
     As dead as we shall ever be,
     Speaks of some total gain or loss,
     And you and I are free

 

To guess from the insulted face
Just what Appearances He saves
By suffering in a public place
A death reserved for slaves.

W.H. Auden, Excerpt from Friday’s Child (In memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred at Flossenbürg, April 9, 1945) (1958).

Auden does not claim that we cannot say that Jesus is risen, but suggests that his resurrection is an awe-inspiring event that nearly leaves us without words.

Amen to that.

The First Word — Forgiveness

Posted on by albrooke

bnw word 1

Narrator  It seemed an endless afternoon.

In the crowd, I would suppose, was a priest, one of those who had given approval to the plot against Jesus. Perhaps he was not a bad man, merely ambitious, or jealous, or fearful. He became a witness to forgiveness.

Priest This is a terrible business – why didn’t that fellow Jesus just stay away from the people – he should have known we couldn’t allow him to go on like he was. He just acted like he wasn’t bound by any of the proprieties. Sometimes it seemed like he was speaking the most profound wisdom, then he would turn around and spout nonsense that no one could believe. Yes, it is a filthy business, and the filthy Roman soldiers love their sport.

Narrator  And Luke recounts the first word that Jesus spoke from the Cross – a word of forgiveness:

The First Word — Luke 23:32-34:  Two other criminals were also led away to be executed with him. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals–one on his right, the other on his left.  Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Text from AFB, “The Endless Afternoon” (2009); photo by Fred Holland Day, “Seven Last Words of Christ (First Word)” (1898).

The Second Word — Grace

Posted on by albrooke

bnw word 2

Narrator With Jesus there were two others, we are told, who, like him, were condemned.

These men were not good men. One, at any rate, saw the moral significance of the situation as he hung there beside Jesus. He became a witness to grace.

The Thief [gasping] Can’t breathe. God! The pain! Just . . . to . . . get a breath. God!  That other fellow’s looking at me. The far one’s angry – who has strength for anger? This Jesus, though . . . remains serene . . . in . . . agony.
Narrator And Luke 23:39-43 gives us the second word:

The people also stood there watching, but the rulers ridiculed him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the king of the Jews.”

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”  But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Text from AFB, “The Endless Afternoon” (2009); photo by Fred Holland Day, “Seven Last Words of Christ (Second Word)” (1898).

“A complete lack of imagination”

Posted on by albrooke

Everybody gets more and more on edge.  A sense of humor and a great faith, or else a complete lack of imagination, are essential to the project.

Eisenhower, in a private letter, on the days leading up to the invasion of Europe, as reported in Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light 14 (2013).

Vocabulary and thought

Posted on by albrooke

[L]anguage deficit leads to attention deficit.  As we deplete our ability to denote and figure particular aspects of our places, so our competence for understanding and imagining possible relationships with non-human nature is correspondingly depleted.

Robert MacFarlane, “The word-hoard,” The Guardian (02/27/2015)

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/27/robert-macfarlane-word-hoard-rewilding-landscape

MacFarlane is talking about the gradual erosion of the vocabulary of words about our natural world, but this piece reminded me of how the loss of spiritual vocabulary — words and stories — leads to an inability to pay attention to spiritual things.