April 15: The Sound of Silence
♫ Music:
Day 46 - Saturday, April 15
Holy Saturday
Jesus is Buried
Scripture: Matthew 27:57-66
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Poetry:
"The Ballad of the Goodly Fere"
by Ezra Pound
Simon Zelotes speaking after the Crucifixion.
Ha’ we lost the goodliest fere o’ all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O’ ships and the open sea.
When they came wi’ a host to take Our Man
His smile was good to see,
“First let these go!” quo’ our Goodly Fere,
“Or I’ll see ye damned," says he.
Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears
And the scorn of his laugh rang free,
“Why took ye not me when I walked about
Alone in the town?” says he.
Oh we drank his “Hale” in the good red wine
When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere
But a man o’ men was he...
If they think they ha’ snared our Goodly Fere
They are fools to the last degree.
“I’ll go to the feast," quo’ our Goodly Fere,
“Though I go to the gallows tree.”
“Ye ha’ seen me heal the lame and blind,
And wake the dead," says he,
“Ye shall see one thing to master all:
‘Tis how a brave man dies on the tree.”
A son of God was the Goodly Fere
That bade us his brothers be.
I ha’ seen him cow a thousand men.
I have seen him upon the tree.
He cried no cry when they drave the nails
And the blood gushed hot and free,
The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue
But never a cry cried he...
A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea,
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.
I ha’ seen him eat o’ the honey-comb
Sin’ they nailed him to the tree.
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Holy Saturday is the day that nobody ever talks about. It is the “silent” day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is a period of waiting: of hope and expectation for us (a perfect “case in point” of 20/20 hindsight!), but of excruciating crushing dismay for the original disciples.
This past Christmas I saw Silence by Martin Scorsese, a movie that explores the in-betweenness of Holy Saturday. Silence the movie is based on a famous work of historical fiction, by Japanese Christian author Shusaku Endo. In addition to the film, acclaimed Christian artist Makoto Fujimura just published a follow-up book entitled Silence and Beauty. Reading Endo’s novel, followed by watching Scorsese’s film, and then reading Fujimura’s book, was a powerful and immersive experience. The original novel, written in 1966, is about 17th century Jesuit missionaries who go to Japan, are tortured for their faith, are captured by Japanese officials, and under pressure forced to apostatize. The book is entitled Silence because it asks the question: in the midst of suffering and persecution, why does God seem silent? What sort of finality did the disciples feel in the eerie silence of the stone being rolled shut across the mouth of the tomb? How did Jesus himself feel when the silence of the Father so permeated him that he exclaimed from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Can we see any “good” in the silence of Holy Saturday, similar to the “good” in Good Friday? Is it simply the “Procession into Hades” as represented by John Tavener’s music? Ezra Pound’s lyrics give us a clue:
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.
I ha’ seen him eat o’ the honey-comb
Sin’ they nailed him to the tree.
But again, that is because Pound (and we) know the end of the story. What of people who don’t know, or who do not see the Promised Land on this side of heaven, people who believed “yet none of them received what had been promised” (Heb. 11:39)? But that verse also says “These were all commended for their faith.” However, faith of something better must always be balanced by the reality that some things in this world are terribly wrong and need rectifying. When you are sitting in Holy Saturday and know that “Sunday’s a-coming,” that doesn’t take away the pain of Friday. Good pastoral ministry tries to make God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” It doesn’t just assure of a better day to come while ignoring the present felt need; it acknowledges that need too.
If a single person comes to you lamenting the loneliness they feel, it’s not enough to give assurances that God is more satisfying than any husband or wife. That may be theologically true, but we are not just walking brains. Put your arms around them and say, "I know this feels horrible," before assuring them that there is something better. If you do missions, getting someone to say a prayer of accepting Jesus is great, but if you do not deal with social justice concerns like food, water, shelter, clothing, and employment first, then it rings hollow, “pie in the sky.” If someone’s child dies in a car accident, simply quoting Rom. 8:28 is sorely lacking compassion; suffer with them first. Our Lord Jesus wept with Mary and Martha before raising Lazarus from the dead. And we need to lament in moments of suffering, and with the disciples on Holy Saturday, even if we know the resurrection is right around the corner.
PRAYER
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy says, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psalm 13)
Allen Yeh
Associate Professor of Missiology,
Cook School of Intercultural Studies
About the Video:
This CCCA Video features a series of powerful images depicting Christ’s death, deposition and descent into Hades. These images accompany John Tavener’s “Procession into Hades” a series of pieces the composer wrote for Chanticleer an all-male acapella ensemble.
List of the Artworks in Video:
Piéta by Giovanni Bellini
Descent of Jesus from the Cross by Andrey Mironov
Crucifixion by Louis Icart
The Descent from the Cross by Gebhard Fugel Kreuzabnahme
The Deposition by Arnold Böcklin
The Lamentations of Mary Magdalene on the Body of Christ by Arnold Böcklin
Deploring and Preparing for the Entombment by Vassili Perov
Lamentation of Christ by the Virgin Mary and St. John by Peter Paul Rubens
Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Unknown Artist
Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Anthony van Dyck
The Lamentation of Christ by Paolo Veronese
Jesus is Laid in the Tomb by Unknown Artist
The Entombment of Christ by Badalocchio
The Entombment by Peter Paul Rubens
The Entombment of Christ by Titian
The Entombment by Rembrandt van Rijn
Jesus Visits The Dead by Unknown Artist
Statue of a Woman Weeping by Unknown Sculptor
Descent into Limbo by Andrea Mantegna
Jesus Descend to Hades by Unknown Artist
Christ in Limbo by Fra Angelico
Descent into Hell by Unknown Artist
Harrowing of Hell by Nikolay Koshelev
Christ Rises from the Grave by Unknown Artist
About the Music:
“Procession into Hades”
Lyrics:
Give me this stranger whom his mother saw dead,
and cried out: “O my Son and God.”
Give me this stranger.
I trust in Your Resurrection.
Even if I am bruised and wounded
and my heart stricken as I see You as a corpse.
Give me this stranger.
My Son and my God. Show Your Resurrection.
O my Son and God. Show Your Resurrection.
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. “Procession into Hades” was written specifically for Chanticleer, and is one song taken from Tavener's larger work, Lamentations and Praises. Tavener’s piece takes its inspiration from the ancient sounds of Greek and Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical music. Its scoring calls for the familiar - timpani, strings, and bass trombone - as well as the exotic: Byzantine monastery bell, Tibetan temple bowl, and simantron (a large wooden sounding board struck with a hammer). Tavener described this song cycle as a series of iconic images "linked by a corridor of music."
About the Performers:
Chanticleer is a full-time all-male classical vocal ensemble based in San Francisco, California. Over the last three decades, it has developed a major reputation for its interpretations of Renaissance music, but it also performs a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel, and other venturesome new music and is widely known as an "Orchestra of Voices.” Chanticleer was named for the "clear singing rooster" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
www.chanticleer.org
About the Poet:
Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, and a major figure in the early modernist movement in literature. His contribution to poetry began with his development of Imagism, a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision and economy of language. Working in London in the early 20th century as foreign editor of several American literary magazines, Pound helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway. The Ballad of the Goodly Fere is a poem by Pound, first published in 1909. Pound wrote the poem as a direct response to what he considered inappropriately effeminate portrayals of Jesus.