The Catholic Weekly 4 April 2021

Love before the untamed cross Anna Krohn T he Gospel used in the Western liturgy for this year’s PalmSunday is the account of the Lord’s Passion in the Gospel of Saint Mark. Inmanyways the short and in places blunt statements of this Gospel reflect the stripped back and disorientating situation in which the Church finds itself in the uncertain and unpredictable world post-2020. Vast numbers of Christians around theworld are evermore at threat fromterrorists, armed persecutors and repressive re- gimes than they are fromthe per- sistently fearful Covid-19 virus. Christians in the state of Vic- toria, have largely andmercifully been spared the ravages of infec- tion and life-threatening religious persecution. Yet as theymet for worship this PalmSunday, therewas a largely unspoken sense that the position of the Church has dramatical- ly changed; there is no “back-to- the-recent-past” and no back to normal. InVictorianCatholic Church- es, for the first time inmore than a year therewere larger congre- gational numbers with newly un- masked faces. For the first time many of the older faithful have tentatively ventured toMass at- tendance in person. Therewere new faces, and newbabies. A few families and young peo- plewere awkwardly at Mass for the first time. Some have not re- turned. Other families have relo- cated to regional or newparishes saying that they have realigned their priorities during those long and strangemonths of lockdown. TheMarkanGospel conveys with short brushstrokes, the ee- rily familiarmystery and the open-endedness of the struggle between faith and love and the broken politics of faceless and jeeringmobs, resentful bureau- crats and the puzzled though bru- tal enforcers of Roman Law. All the action is untamed and impressionistic, swept up in the dark tide of damaged human pas- sion: rage, jealousy, mockery, fear and resentment. This Gospel is very sparing with the physical details of the Passion- with its unrelenting tor- ture, pain and dehumanisation deliberately built into the Roman punishment by crucifixion. At the first part of the Chapter there stands before the silent and brutalised Jesus only one human beingwith a name or a personal character, the RomanGovernor of Judea Pontius Pilate. We are taken inside his con- flicting emotions and thoughts, his anxiety, his doubts and his fear of his superiors, his reputa- tion and themob.There are ap- parently only three colours in the austereMarkan palette – black, the dirty red ofmyrrh-tinged wine and the vivid flash of pur- ple in the parody and irony of the mock-crowning of the King. When Jesus cries out (Mark 15:38) – “Eloi, Eloi” – and lets out His wordless cry it is utterly shat- tering. It is as if all that is holy and light leaves theworld. “The veil of the sanctuarywas torn fromtop to bottom.” Then in theMarkannarra- tive, just as all human hope has evaporated andGod appears to have gone to sleep forever: there enter tiny footsteps, unexpect- ed names, figures and glimmers of light. The FrenchCatholic convert mystic poet, Charles Peguywhose lifewas cut short by the darkness of the FirstWorldWar, captures this smallness and fragility of God-gifted hope in his extraordi- nary poemPortal of theMystery of Hope (1912): Put off till tomorrow those sobs that choke you When you see today’smisery. Those sobs that rise in you and strangle you. Put off till tomorrow those tears that fill your eyes and cover your face. That flood you.That fall down your cheeks.Those tears flowing fromyour eyes. Because between today and to- morrow, I, Godmay have passed by. In St Mark suddenly a Roman centurionwitnesses to the Truth (Mark 15:39). In themost unex- pected places, there is stirring ac- tion of faith. Fromthe heart of the resent- ment-ridden religious “Council” emerges another witness to tiny hope, Joseph of Arimatheawho St Mark reveals: “himself lived in the hope of seeing the kingdomof God.” (Mark 15:43). Late in the chapter is the iden- tification of a band of faithful women “standing at a distance” amongwhomare named: “Mary Magdalene, Mary theMother of James and Joset and Salome.” (Mark 15:40). The term“at a distance” is used several times in St Mark’s Gos- pel. Even disciples with the best will cannot comprehend or can- not tame the Paschal Mystery to which they arewitnesses. The next verse (Mark 15:41) reveals in spare terms an entire backstory for thesewomen. Un- like themale disciples (Mark 14:50-52) who proved to have feet of clay or at least fleeing feet, here is a band of “disciples” who have not deserted the Lord although overcome by fear and grief. Thesewomen thoughwordless here stand simply four-square in physical presence in grief and watchfulness.They provide a dramatic contrast to the jeering mobs and the failure of human institutions. In fact thesewomen “disciples” who have “ministered” to Jesus before his Passion andDeathwill continue to do so through the blackness of the Crucifixion and the emptiness of the preparation time (we knowas Holy Saturday). The Chapter ends with the piv- otal verse: “Mary of Magdala andMary themother of Joset took note of where hewas laid.” The next chapter 16 in St Mark’s Gospel seems to be a bun- dle of different narrative threads. It begins with a light andwhite- filled picture. The faithful women return to the sealed tomb, loving- ly prepared to anoint the corpse of their beloved Lordwith the cleansing, preserving and hon- ouring “spice” (myrrh and aloes). Womenwere so often thosewho kept vigil, washed and anointed the lifeless body in funerary ar- rangements. The EasternChurch celebrate this holy fidelity by calling these courageous women known in the West as “Women at the Tomb” as the “HolyMyrrhBearingWom- en.” Mark does not allow compla- cency even here. When they look into the emp- ty tomb they are “struckwith amazement” as if initially para- lysed. Thewomen are shocked by the empty tomb and the command of the dazzling youngman “in white”. Markwrites: “Thewomen came out and ran away fromthe tomb because theywere fright- ened out of their wits; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” While thismight seem like a negative portrayal of the Myrrh-bearingWomen, I think it is rather a reminder that even we, witnesses to the Resurrection “at a distance” in time and place, like thesewomen, will be struck by our own fear, disappointment and even terror. We know fromthe other Gos- pels andChristian tradition, that thesewomen continued to be foundational witnesses to the first glimmers of the Christian faith. Like these great foremothers in the faith it seems wemust keep returning to the God’s lovingmys- tery ofThe Cross. We are called tominister to (and receive) with our small and sometimes inadequate devo- tion, the Body of the Lord. While never letting go of the lively and humble hand of “littleHope” – we are today, with St Mark’s wom- en, witnesses to the “excess” of the Christ’s Resurrection- beyond anythingwrought by human minds or hands. We like them, cannot possibly capture in “words” the Fire that is the Resurrection. Anna Krohn is an educator and educational writer who has worked for the John Paul II Insti- tute forMarriage and Family and the AustralianCatholic University inMelbourne. Like the women at the tomb we, too, cannot possibly capture in words the “Fire” that is the Resurrection. PHOTO: CNS, DEBBIE HILL “In the Markan narrative, just as all human hope has evaporated and God appears to have gone to sleep forever: there enter tiny footsteps, unexpected names, figures and glimmers of light.”