March 26: Beholding the Strange Glory of the Crucified Christ
♫ Music:
Day 22 - Wednesday, March 26
Title: Beholding the Strange Glory of the Crucified Christ
Scripture #1: John 1:14 (NKJV)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Scripture #2: 1 John 1:1–2 (NKJV)
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Scripture #3: Matthew 27:54 (NKJV)
So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Poetry & Poet:
“A Geode”
by Robert B. Shaw
What started out a glob of molten mud
hawked up by some Brazilian volcano
back in the Pleistocene is now a rock
of unremarkable appearance, brown
as ordinary mud and baseball-size.
Picking it up produces a surprise:
besides a pleasant heftiness, a sound
of sloshing can be noticed. Vapors caught
within its cooling crust were liquified,
and linger still: a million-year-old vintage.
Although one might recall the once ubiquitous
snowstorm-in-a-glass-globe paperweights,
this offers us no view inside to gauge
the wild weather a shake or two incites.
Turbulence masked by hard opacity . . .
If we could, which would we rather see?—
age-old distillate, infant tears of the earth,
or gem-like crystal of the inner walls
harboring them like some fair reliquary?
To see the one we'd have to spill the other.
Better to keep it homely and intact,
a witness to the worth of hiddenness,
which, in regard to our own kind, we call
reticence, and in terms of higher things,
mystery. Let the elixir drench unseen
the facets that enshrine it, world without end.
BEHOLDING THE STRANGE GLORY OF THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST
If you get the chance to see sunlight spill through a stained glass window, take a moment to notice how the beauty is multifold. Not only does the window itself shine forth, but light also passes through to fall softly on the interior in vibrant colors, transforming walls or worshipers, pews or prayers. But to create this radiance, there is also a beauty to the brokenness these windows must hold: stained glass windows cast light through many pieces—cut, divided, broken—all arranged to create kaleidoscopic inspiration.
Yes, there is a glory to something that is broken then remade. The prophet Haggai records, “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house.” (Haggai 2:9, NIV). This touches on a paradox of our faith: our redemption lies in Christ's brokenness. But His brokenness alone does not suffice, it must be coupled with the Resurrection. Because without the Resurrection, Christ’s sacrifice would be like broken glass left only to pierce, reduced to a tragic, hopeless murder. So, to behold the strange glory of the crucified Christ is to confront the gore and horror of the Crucifixion while simultaneously beholding the beauty and joy of the Resurrection that left the tomb empty.
Today’s creative offerings invite deep reflection on this. Images of Sean Scully’s stained glass windows help us focus on the beauty of Christ crucified; their colorful light interacts with the silver crucifix, echoing the light of resurrection that lies outside the tomb. And each window symbolically speaks, from Mary's blue sorrow to the Church's multicolored joy. The hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent” also spans the life of Christ and connects to our focus in the lines, “as the Light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day, that the pow'rs of hell may vanish as the darkness clears away.” And the poem “A Geode” by Robert B. Shaw compellingly gives us insight into how amethysts inside a geode are only revealed through breaking. “To see the one we'd have to spill the other,” he writes. The Apostle Paul reinforces this reality: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. [...] If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:17, 19-20a, NIV).
How horrific and pitiful it must have been as Mary and John watched Jesus suffer and die. Yet while many abandoned him, their committed love allowed them to see him at his most paradoxically triumphant. They chose to behold him as he broke. That witness, if alone and final, would have left anyone in despair. This is why Mary and John's witness to the Resurrection is important. Their presence at both the laden cross and the empty tomb demonstrates the centrality of embracing both aspects of salvation in our faith. Their firsthand experience—“that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled”—makes this declaration, “we beheld His glory,” all the more powerful.
Still, there is much difficulty in this world for us to witness or experience. I know many people who have lost houses and neighborhoods in the recent LA fires. Other friends are fighting cancer. And I will share that it’s been difficult for me to hold space for my Christian brothers and sisters who have such extremely different and contentious political views. But, this past December, God invited me to a theme for 2024: “Behold the Lamb of God.” That focus led me to select this particular day of the Lent Project as the one I’d write on—to behold the crucified Christ. It is a focus that can be difficult. Growing up in evangelical Protestantism, the emphasis was mainly on hope or joy, often to the exclusion of balancing aspects like suffering and sacrifice, or the “with-ness” Jesus went through in his redemptive mission. His presence with us in our holistic lives is essential; it reminds us that in all, God can be present. Likewise, we must strive to be present for each other, to choose to behold Christ and each other in brokenness or repair.
It is in belonging to the Church, Jesus’ family, that we are called to realize the complete picture of Christ. As we behold the brokenness of this world, we behold the glory of Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. So, even in the pain of seeing a loved one succumb to disease, a neighborhood to fire, or our world to chaos, we can yet join with the ceaseless voices of heaven crying, “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, Lord Most High!”
Prayer: [If possible, face a source of light or warmth as you pray.]
Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice on the cross and triumph over the grave. Help me to be transformed by beholding you. And grant me the courage and compassion to behold others in the light of your Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Amen
Steven Homestead
Artist, Composer, Writer, and Curator
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Scully Windows (four windows)
Sean Scully
2024
Stained glass windows
Altdorf Chapel
Abbey Basilica of St. Martin
Landshut, Germany
The renowned Irish-American artist Sean Scully (b. 1945) has created four new windows for the Abbey Basilica of St. Martin in Landshut, Germany. In an interview, the artist explains how his collaboration with St. Martin came about and what role the Catholic Church plays in his life. Of the windows, he says, “I wanted the windows to be very visually appealing. That's why I used this repeating pattern. And the last window, the small window, if you look from right to left, is the colour of the dress of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In La Pietà, this is a very important colour in Italian painting. And I tried to find just the right blue to create an association, a metaphorical association with the colour of the dress that Mary wears in almost all the paintings of the Pietà….Because first we have the colour blue, which is a melancholy, sad colour. It refers to the crucifixion. Then we have the other two windows, which refer to exaltation and joy. That's how you can read it, and I think it's a very beautiful reading.”
https://english.katholisch.de/artikel/56352-artist-sean-scully-the-church-is-very-tolerant-when-it-comes-to-art
https://martin-landshut.de/st-martin-besuchen/sehenswuerdigkeiten
About the Artist:
Sean Scully (b. 1945) is an Irish-born American-based artist working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and photographer. His work is held in museum collections worldwide and he has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. Moving from London to New York in 1975, Scully helped lead the transition from minimalism to emotional abstraction in painting, abandoning the reduced vocabulary of minimalism in favour of a return to metaphor and spirituality in art. While known primarily for his large-scale abstract paintings, consisting of vertical and horizontal bands, tessellating blocks, and geometrical forms of graduated and shifting colors, Scully also works in a variety of diverse media, including printmaking, sculpture, watercolor, and pastel. Having developed a style over the past five decades that is uniquely his own, Scully has cemented his place in the history of painting. Scully has also been a lecturer and professor at a number of universities and his writing and teachings are collected in the 2016 book, Inner: The Collected Writings and Selected Interviews of Sean Scully.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Scully
https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/sean-scully
About the Music: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent” from the album Till Morn Eternal Breaks
Lyrics:
Let all mortal flesh keep silent,
and stand with fear and trembling,
and in itself consider nothing earthly;
for the King of kings and Lord of lords
cometh forth to be sacrificed,
and given as food to the believers;
and there go before Him the choirs of Angels,
with every Dominion and Power,
the many-eyed Cherubim
and the six-winged Seraphim,
covering their faces, and crying out the hymn:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
About the Composer:
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” also known as “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent,” is an ancient chant of eucharistic devotion based on words from Habakkuk 2:20, "Let all the earth keep silence before Him," and Zechariah 2:13 (ESV), "Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling." The original was composed in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn for the Offertory of the Divine Liturgy of St. James and probably antedates the rest of the liturgy and goes back at least to AD 275. In modern times, the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of a translation from the Greek by Gerard Moultrie to the tune of "Picardy,” a French medieval folk melody, popularized the hymn among other Christian congregations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_all_mortal_flesh_keep_silence
About the Performers: The Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon’s Monastery directed by Benedict Sheehan
This year St. Tikhon’s Monastery broke new ground for Orthodox choral music in the United States by creating a new ensemble, the Chamber Choir of St. Tikhon’s Monastery, an all-professional ensemble, made up of some of the finest singers in the New York area and around the country. Working together with the monastery’s resident music director, conductor and composer Benedict Sheehan, the chamber choir just recorded an album of newly composed and arranged sacred music in the Orthodox tradition. Members include Benedict Sheehan, conductor; Laura Soto-Bayomi, soprano; Tynan Davis, mezzo-soprano; Matthew Slipp, tenor; and John Michael Boyer, baritone. Till Morn Eternal Breaks includes world-premiere recordings of some of Sheehan’s liturgical works, as well as a world-premiere recording of his Triduum Paschalae, a work for mixed chorus and soloists based on medieval English poetry and texts by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
https://sttikhonsmonastery.org/news_150607_1#:~:text=Tikhon's%20Monastery%20broke%20new%20ground,area%20and%20around%20the%20country.
Two-time Grammy nominee and American Prize winner Benedict Sheehan has been called “a choral conductor and composer to watch in the 21st century” (ConcertoNet). He is the artistic director and founder of Artefact Ensemble and the Grammy-nominated Saint Tikhon Choir, as well as being the artist-in-residence at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania. His award-winning recordings with the Saint Tikhon Choir include his sacred works Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (2020) and Vespers (2021), as well as two acclaimed collaborations with Skylark Vocal Ensemble on Once Upon A Time (2020) and A Christmas Carol (2021). In 2021, Sheehan conducted Artefact Ensemble in the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s newest work, O Holy Father Nicholas, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His projects and ensembles have become known within the choral community as welcoming, inclusive, and life-affirming spaces for musicians and audiences alike.
https://www.benedictsheehanmusic.com/bio
About the Poetry and Poet:
Robert B. Shaw (b. 1947) is an American poet and the author of Solving for X, an award-winning collection of poems. “Solving for X is droll and puzzled, elegiac and satirical in equal measure,” writes Rachel Hadas. “Shaw's attention alights on a variety of more and less tangible things—a seed catalog, a shirt, a bad book, a request for a letter of recommendation, an irritating colleague’s death—which his masterfully packed lines then proceed to light up with deliberate and unforgettable authority.” Shaw’s previous books of poetry are The Post Office Murals Restored, Below the Surface, and The Wonder of Seeing Double. He is also the author of a study of the poetry of John Donne and George Herbert. His poems and articles appear frequently in American and British magazines. Shaw regularly teaches poetry writing as well as courses in a number of areas of literature. Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Shaw taught at Harvard and Yale.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/emeriti-retired-faculty/robert-b-shaw
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-b-shaw
About the Devotion Writer:
Steven Homestead
Artist, Composer, Writer, and Curator
Steven Homestead is a Renaissance creative with a passion for arts and the church. For over a decade, he has served as a leader with the arts ministry at Saddleback Church in Southern California. He is also the co-founder of the new arts organization The Network of Christians in the Visual Art (ncva.community). In all, Steven works to promote honor, champion voice, share wonder, and develop unity. Discover more atstevenhomestead.com.