March 31: Another Crucifixion
♫ Music:
Monday, March 31—Day 27
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43
Another Crucifixion
The last of the three to die was the one
whose harsh words to the rabbi had availed
for the third culprit the astonishing
promise of paradise.
The last of the three could no longer turn
even his head—his body had stiffened.
He did not dare close his eyes again, so
fixed upon the rabbi’s face,
which had grown so utterly still, opaque,
that the dying one observed a vivid
mirroring of his own condition there,
or so he imagined,
confused, struggling to see anything clearly.
As that face blurred, he saw beyond to the one
whose shins were that moment cracking across
the flat of a sword.
That man, too, was clearly dead, and if this day
he also swam in bliss, it didn’t show.
The dying man would examine the dead
rabbi one more time
if he could, but finally knew the man
was lost to his sight. He felt a tug, far
away (at his feet?) and a blade across
his knees. He heard them crack,
and heard himself cry out (so far away).
Dying, he thought that if he could just glimpse
the rabbi’s ruined face, he might suspect
a kingdom even now.
Scott Cairns, Poet
Prayer
O Lord Jesus
Please abide with me
Dispel my deep loneliness!
No one can be my companion forever
But you are the Lord who is everywhere
Present at all times
Only you are my dear companion and savior.
In the long dark night
Along the silent shadowy pathways
I beg you to grasp my hand.
When others have forgotten me
Please remember me in eternity!
In the healing and saving name of Jesus I pray.
Amen.
(Andrew Song)
Cairns, Scott. Recovered Body (New York: George Braziller Publisher, 1998), p 63.
Crucifixion
Kurt Simonson
Photograph
About the Artist and Art
Kurt Simonson (b 1977) is an artist/educator whose work explores the longings and tensions that surround our ideas of home, community and identity. Whether connecting the myth and memory of his own upbringing in Minnesota, wandering the globe in search of alternate forms of community, or taking intimate portraits of his closest friends, questions about family, story, and belonging remain at the heart of his curiosity.
Kurt’s work is regularly exhibited throughout the country and internationally, including an upcoming solo exhibition at Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, Ore., and recent exhibits at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, Colo.), RayKo Photo Center (San Francisco, Calif.), and the Foto8 Gallery in London, England. His work has been published in the London Sunday Times Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Lenscratch, and Dodho Magazine. In 2012 he received a Curator’s Choice award from CENTER Santa Fe, and was shortlisted that same year in Photolucida's Critical Mass.
Kurt teaches at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif., where he is an Associate Professor of Photography in the Art Department. He lives and works in Long Beach, Calif., where you can probably find him eating breakfast.
“Untitled (Crucifixion)” is part of a series of pieces that explores the in-between spaces of life. Simonson is interested in those places of tension where things are rarely what they first seem — places where either/or propositions are inadequate, sacred/secular dichotomies are exhausted, and the truth lies instead in the complexity of both/and situations.
http://www.kurtsimonson.com/
About the Music (Piece 1)
Song for Athene lyrics:
Alleluia.
May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Alleluia.
Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom.
Alleluia.
Give rest, O Lord, to your handmaid, who has fallen asleep.
Alleluia.
The Choir of Saints have found the well-spring of life and door of Paradise.
Alleluia.
Life: a shadow and a dream.
Alleluia.
Weeping at the grave creates the song: Alleluia. Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you.
Alleluia.
About the Composer
Sir John Tavener (1944 – 2013) was a British composer, known for his extensive output of religious works, including The Whale, The Protecting Veil, Song for Athene and The Lamb, a choral composition that was included in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty. Arguably his most well known work, Song for Athene was sung by the Westminster Abbey Choir at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. Written in honor of a deceased friend, Song for Athene combines the text of her Orthodox funeral service with that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
About the Music (Piece 2)
Jesus Remember Me lyrics:
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
I assure, this day you will be with me,
This day you will be, with Me in paradise.
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
Jesus, Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom
About the Composer
Jacques Berthier (1923-1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at the Taizé Community — an ecumenical monastic order in France and a common pilgrimage destination. He was an organist at the Church of the Jesuits in Paris for much of his life. Over nearly twenty years, Berthier built up a body of church music that has been utilized around the world.
About the Poet
Scott Cairns (b 1954) is an American poet, memoirist and essayist. Cairns earned a B.A. from Western Washington University, an M.A. from Hollins University, an MFA from Bowling Green State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Cairns has served on the faculties of Kansas State University, Westminster College, University of North Texas, Old Dominion University. He currently is the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in English at the University of Missouri. While at North Texas, Cairns had served as editor of the American Literary Review. He now also directs Writing Workshops in Greece, an annual, 4-week workshop, located on the island of Thasos. Cairns is the author of seven collections of poetry, one collection of translations of Christian mystics, one spiritual memoir, a book-length essay on suffering, and co-edited The Sacred Place with Scott Olsen, an anthology of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.