Okay, we have our technical support here. Okay, God come to my assistance. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Well, we've been spending all this time reflecting on the divine life and the ways in which we're called invited to share in it in Jesus Christ, and how our stance of receptivity is basically presented as the way in which we were really created, and sin has somehow violated that with a self-focus. And we've looked at Mary as a model of that absolute receptivity of discipleship, really the prototype disciple. Now, maybe it would be helpful, I thought, if we could look at perhaps a way in which we can't stand before the Lord and be receptive, a way in which the Gospel presents to us

[01:14]

It's a wrong attitude, a wrong disposition, sometimes from very surprising sources. So what I'd like to read to you is a very familiar passage. It's Marx's version of the account of the rich man and we're going to look at that a little bit actually in light of another passage. As he was setting out on a journey, that's Jesus, a man ran up, knelt down before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus answered him, why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and your mother." He replied and said, "'Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.'" Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "'You are lacking in one thing.

[02:20]

Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. you know, astute monks that we are. We know John Cashin tells us, you know, that the many possessions, you know, he tells the story of a monk who gave up a vast wealth, but stayed attached to a tin cup, which he guarded with his life jealously. And that was the cause of his spiritual downfall. This young man with his good intention, well Matthew tells us he's a young man, Marge tells us he's a man, this man with his good intention somehow desiring, desiring eternal life, somehow missed the boat.

[03:27]

At least in this story, hopefully later on he might have had a change, a deeper insight, a realization of what he's meant to be, but the story doesn't leave us with that sense. The story leaves us with a sense that he has gone away sad and has departed from the Lord's presence. Before we begin to analyze what's wrong, Let's look at this story in light of another story with a happier ending. The Gospel of John, and from Chapter 8, the story of the woman caught in adultery. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do you say?"

[04:30]

They said this to test him so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again, he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus, straightening up, and said to her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She replied, no one, sir. Then Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, do not sin anymore.

[05:36]

This woman went away justified. The man who sought justification went away sad. She's given new life and he leaves, maybe on the verge of despair, all his life wanting to know what needed to be done to have eternal life. What's the difference in these two events? This woman did not come to Jesus seeking anything. In fact, she's dragged against her own will. So what happens here? Let's look at the woman first. The woman is a ploy, of course. She's a trap. They've caught her. They've probably known this woman was an easy catcher in the very act of adultery. And without any regard for her person or her life, they're going to use her to trap Jesus.

[06:45]

That's the attitude of the religious officials in this story. But what's going on from this woman's perspective? We can imagine her shock, her horror, the realization of her deepest fear, being in a relationship which would obviously be tumultuous at the period, very frightening, terrifying, dangerous, and being caught in that. And not just being caught in it by a neighbor or her parents or her husband or whoever, but caught by the very men of her society who would have been the most fearsome, the most intimidating, the very representation of justice and decency and being right with God. She's caught by these people, I mean, the horror of this situation, you can imagine.

[07:51]

I mean, it doesn't take any of us too long to figure out how we would react if we were caught in our deepest, darkest sin. And here she is, caught. And not just caught, but dragged out into the street. You know, just picture the scene. It's the morning, it's daylight, people are about their business. The self-righteous religious leaders Processing down the street with all the self-confidence of the arrogant, you know, I guess we can all identify with that. Men righteously striding, women standing at the door probably whispering to one another, maybe saying something out loud, we know her family. The humiliation, the exposure, the little children who love a parade running alongside, you know, making all sorts of comments. And then to be dragged through the street to the temple square and be brought in front of a holy man, she doesn't know the ploy.

[08:59]

All she knows is that these models of decency and being right with God have now dragged her in front of a holy man and he's going to decide her fate. Imagine the humiliation, the degradation that this woman is experiencing right now. It's almost humorous to read, even with church fathers as much as I love them, all the time that's been spent trying to figure out what Jesus is writing on the ground. Augustine is convinced that he's writing out all their sins, and maybe he is, I don't know. And some more recent commentators say that he's stalling for time. He's trying to think of what's the best response. I don't think that that's the point. This woman, dragged out in the sunlight, in her deepest sin, before God and everyone, literally before God and everyone, where is she looking?

[10:07]

Is she looking in the eyes of her accusers? She's looking at the ground. And Jesus puts himself beneath her. And in the midst of this horror, this trauma, she sees the presence of the only person who will not judge her, who will not condemn her, who will love her unconditionally. She's present to him because he's present to her. He puts himself beneath her gaze. He goes lower than her, puts himself on the ground. How like Christ? Whatever he's doing on the ground, I don't know. Maybe he's doodling, and I suspect that that's what he's doing, but whatever he's doing, I think that's secondary to his intention. I think his primary intention is to let her see him.

[11:10]

Let her see the one who has loved her from the beginning, and desires her to be with him in eternity. He's pressed, give an answer, we want a reply. He makes a response, well, let the one of you without sin be the first to cast a stone. Is it the wittiness of that comment that sends these people away? Or is it that they too begin to realize that they have somehow entered into the light? And somehow being in his presence, seeing this humility, without consciously recognizing it, begin to allow this light to shine on their own hidden sins. And they too move a step closer to love by realizing that they have no business judging anyone. And they walk away. They walk away so completely that just the woman is left alone with the Lord.

[12:23]

She could have made good her escape. She could have snuck off and started a new life. Found her boyfriend and said, come on, Clyde, let's go off to Jericho, huh? She could have done any number of things. But she stayed present to the one who stayed present to her. She stayed present to the one who could judge her, who could condemn her. But perhaps from him, she now has the strength to take that judgment. Because somehow, even in just seeing his back, somehow, she's seen him. She sees his love. And she wants to remain present. And so he sends her away justified. Her sins are forgiven. She doesn't leave the way the rich young man will leave him.

[13:29]

She's really commissioned. Sin no more. Live in this light. Live in this grace. Be a sign of the love that you have received from me. She is a new being. Let's now return to Mark. That nice man. who's been very good, a very good boy since his youth, and he's kept all the commandments. Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? The phrase itself makes him the patron saint of Pelagius. What must I do to gain eternal life? How do I achieve it? How do I earn it? What can I do? We can't do anything to gain eternal life.

[14:32]

It's a gift. It's freely given to us. It's not what we work at and achieve and earn. It's a relationship we respond to. Jesus calls him to the attention of the commandments that he's kept since his youth, he tells him. But then, Something very beautiful occurs in the text. Jesus sees his earnestness. He sees and knows that this guy has been living his life in the light of the law. And he looks at him in love. Looking at him, he loved him. Probably our greatest desire, and perhaps our greatest fear, is to see that gaze. The look of love through which we see the depths of the Father's selfless giving, the look of love which from eternity has desired us to share in his light, the look of love which desires to suffer in our place, to give himself completely to us,

[15:51]

that we might know his life, a look that contains the meaning of the entire universe and all the hope for salvation. Christ looks at him in love. Did that man see it? I suspect not. because he was so focused on himself and what he could do. What must I do to attain eternal life? How can I earn it? And when he heard the task, he was daunted. That's too much. You're asking too much. Oh, if that's what it takes, how can I ever earn eternal life? It was a relationship Christ was calling him into. He's looking at him in love. And if that man could truly see the look of love, if he could just let go of himself and receive this glance, somehow his very innate being would be awakened and he would respond.

[17:06]

The Lord's saying, I don't want much from you, I just want everything. And you'll gladly give it to me, even as I gladly return all that I've received from the Father back to the Father. Because you've been loved first. And if we truly love Christ, truly our hearts are focused on receiving that gaze, that glance of love in which he gives himself completely to us, Our response is to completely give ourselves in return. Give everything to the poor. Give up everything. Come follow him. That's actually, I guess, at the root of what we're doing here, what we're doing with our lives. Somewhere, at some point in our lives, we felt loved and we've desired to respond. But it's an ongoing dialogue, an ongoing relationship. And even with that original intention, just like Mary's fiat, it's not just a one-time deal, it means to be a condition in which we live, a disposition in which we're existing, a relationship to which we're responding.

[18:27]

The man went away sad. because he was looking at himself. What must I do? That was his focus. He wasn't a wicked man. He wasn't evil. He wanted to serve God because he basically, in a very real way, wanted what God could give him. Christ is saying, respond to this love. Receive what I have to give you. and your response should be to hold nothing back and return in kind. The woman was looking for love in all the wrong places, but she was looking for love. It's interesting how throughout his ministry Jesus has a soft spot for adulteresses and prostitutes. maybe because they best represent to Him the fallen Israel and the fallen human condition, that wandering search for love and being lost in the muddle and the confusion.

[19:44]

The only thing that keeps us from the full relationship with Christ is our capacity to receive His love. our desire, our availability, our disposition, to be able to really receive his glance, his gift. Because I think deep down we know that if we really do receive that, we will be transformed. It's an ongoing struggle and it's a conversion of life. That's probably why Benedict spends so much time building up the whole chapter of humility, twelve steps which basically lead us to the love that casts out all fear. But in our lives we've all experienced that look of love, sometimes more profoundly than others. I think the trick is to try to, at least in our prayer, return to the place where we know we are loved by Him.

[20:53]

And from that place, ask him for the gift to respond as he desires for us to respond to him. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. two of the most beautiful images of Jesus, the kind one, aren't they?

[22:12]

There are too many other passages which convey the kindness, the moving, the sensitiveness of Jesus to love, how he loved that man. I mean, it's wonderful. The only other passage I can think of that I liked so much is the leper. Nobody else will pay attention to this. You can, if you want to, you can heal yourself. Of course they want to. That's the other one. Somehow, if we read nothing else in these passages, the tenderness of his soul, how kind, how loving he is. Anyway, thank you for bringing them out. It's so beautiful. Yeah, that was very good. It was like the whole same thing. But what was fucking was the Lord's love to him. Yeah, I know. And it was, you know, it went all the way inside of him.

[23:17]

But the Lord's love to him. Just thank you, Lord. It's similar to what Demetrius mentions, that the passion doesn't begin at the Last Supper, but begins with that other woman who came then, the White King, you know, in Viridianus. So... We've got the... Oh, the image of the stony heart is a very good one. I mean, our receptiveness. You know, essentially, that guy's doing, he's playing the whole Eve tape again. That's it for me. And we do that with our approach to faith so often, you know, it gets so confused. At least I don't.

[24:22]

You know, I think in the gospel there's a lot more glances of love than we give Jesus credit. I mean, like, there's things that he says where I'm sure that he's at least, if not laughing, he's darn near a chuckle, you know? You know, I mean, like, you know, like a lot of the discourses, you know? Is there a man among you who would give your son a snake if he asked for a fish? I mean, I can't see him not on the verge of a smile, at least, when he's saying something. Of course he wouldn't, you know? You know, I think that he I think he's profoundly human, in interaction, on a very human level, but his humanity is, you know, somehow, it's like that look into that man, I mean, I'm sure it was a very tender and a very soft look, but if the man really gazed back, I don't know if I'd be able to sustain the Gates.

[25:25]

I seriously doubt it at this point. I don't think many of us could. I'm sure the intensity in that tenderness must be so profound it really fires a purgatory, I think. It's a lovely thing to go to bed and look at. I guess that's a dismissal. I should tell you too, I once had a dream that I met God. And it was actually, it was before I hadn't thought of this, that God was this little man, very little man, behind a big desk.

[26:50]

I died, I died in the dream. But he looked up, you know, I ended the, this is kind of a stupid dream, but I think it was somehow very telling. He looked up at me like this, now his head was down. And he looked at me and I don't think I was thinking of his past, but his face, especially his eyes, there was just this sweet, beautiful, just, I can't describe it, it was such a tender look of love. And I had a memory in the dream, and I've continued to have that memory, since I was a small child of my grandfather, who, maybe he just did this with children, I don't know, but he could look at you in such a tender way that, like, you know, no matter, you know, your mother, your aunts, your grandmother could hug you to death, but this man could look at you and you somehow knew that you were loved in every fiber of your being. And I thought, God's got my grandfather's eyes.

[27:55]

And then next thing I knew, The look really deepened and intensified and it became more intense and I couldn't bear it. I mean, it was just, it was so tender and so sweet. I was so, so into it. I couldn't, it was hard for me to bear it. But I thought, I can't look away, this is God. But I wanted to run. But he just kept looking. And then finally, where I thought, I can't look away, by my own will, I will not move. But I was no longer somehow recognizing. He looked down and didn't say anything. It wasn't in words, but then it's a very strong a very strong sense of, well, it was actually sort of disappointment. It was, I wanted so much more for you than what you were able to endure, you know.

[29:00]

I just sort of somehow renewed my prayer. And, you know, again, it was a silly dream, but I think it was, I think it's the kind of, I think sometimes how he works through all sorts of ways. I don't know if I was in the guy's place if I would have been much different, but that he is looking at us with that intensity. I thought I'd share that. I bet this is an example of God's sense of humor, that he enjoyed your dream. Well, I'll bet he did. I bet he did. But I somehow think I was either giving or giving myself a message. Could be better. I mean, you could love better. I mean, I think from that point on, I began to be more aware of a lot of selfish tendencies, which I tended to ignore. I was very, I think I'd been very, I wouldn't say convicted of that.

[30:03]

But I mean, I don't think I was. There was a lot of back-patting, you know, about, well, you know, what you've done, you know, somehow it was a, you broke with the world, quote-unquote, you know. Meanwhile, I'm living in a very cushy, modest area. I could easily be a very comfortable bachelor, you know, and convinced that I'm living a life of sacrifice, I guess. Anyhow. Sir, this is a little side issue. It's not dope pious, but I think God would laugh at this too. This woman went into an office of a big portrait manager. This is a true story. And she said, she thought he was very rude. She said, I would think you'd stand up when a woman comes as well. He says, I am standing. I'm so short behind this desk. God hurt.

[31:11]

I remember George Burns playing this clapper. Oh God. Oh God, yeah. And John Denver was his prophet. I swear to God, thank God. The little girl got in the other room. I don't think I've ever seen either. The one with John Denver was good, but the one with the little girl, I thought was really good. I know I never saw that, but I think I saw parts about God, but I never saw Homer. I guess someone came after him. Yeah, the second. The little girl was the second one? Yes. I thought that was really good. I mean, he was definitely rockless with people's worlds. I mean, he'd get out of peers and They had her in a courtroom with all these psychologists and psychiatrists, and he turned the world upside down when he left.

[32:19]

They decided they weren't going to talk about it anymore, but they declared her sane. This also reminds us of... who was it the other day? Oh, is that a former... Master General Dominicans was giving a talk and he was referring to Meister Eckhart in some place where God the Father laughs at his son and his son laughs back at his father and they laugh at the Holy Spirit. I think that probably should be translated as English is clumsy, probably laughing to each other. But he said the Trinity here, they're so happy, they're just laughing to each other. It was so beautiful that only this day could have a a thought like that. I think it's very wonderful. He's talking about the gift of laughter and happiness and the opportunity of laughing at each other. Someone mentioned Julia Norwich the other day. I did. You know the section where she sees the Lord in His passion and she sees this absolute anguish, this excruciating agony and she's just struck by the horror

[33:31]

And she says then she sees him again and he's laughing and he's laughing just like uproariously and then she sees him in his anguish again and then she sees him laughing and like it's an alternating vision and she's trying to figure out what's going on and she said, Lord why is it that once I see your visage in such sorrow and the next I see you in complete mirth? And he says, because you're seeing that it's my joy, my joy to die for you. And I would do it many times if I needed to. It's my joy to offer myself for you. I thought it was very, you know, I thought that was a little snippet. It's like, I like, I like good old Julie, even if she isn't quite on the calendar. It's my joy to offer myself for you. And I would do it again and again if I was necessary. Some priest here years ago, I never forgot, he said that, read the English mystics, they're the most joyful. There's a joy in there all over the world. It's interesting things, it's interesting.

[34:34]

That is interesting, yeah. Can you do the, now that I've got a pen in front of me, can you do those three calling expressions from Father, Son, and Spirit? Oh, the life-giving lover, the receptive beloved, and the fruit of their union. Receptive lover? Yeah, the life-giving lover, the receptive beloved. Receptive. Receptive. Receptive beloved. And the fruit of their union. The question is for tonight was, did you pick those passages or try to make the connection Are you trying to show that... relationship of the father and son should be the same as relationship of the son to us? That's the parallel. That's exactly the parallel.

[35:35]

That we're created through the son, for the son, you know. That somehow that the son's primary stance towards the father in eternity is absolute receptivity. And that that's how we're created. And I think that that's, when scripture is talking about this bridal relationship, it means to present this profoundly eminent stance of absolute receptivity, which doesn't take away from a masculine terrorism at all, but it's a primary stance of complete, you know, being available to His glance, to what He desires to give us, you know, to receive Him who loves us first. Again, I just wanted to be sure that that's what you were... Yeah, that's exactly the parallel. And then in doing that, in receiving Christ, we're somehow caught up in His exchange with the Father, and as the Son makes a complete return of Himself to the Father, we become part of

[36:49]

of what he gives, you know? We're part of the father's son's self-return, his self-returning to the father. Because we're so merged with him, you can no longer see where the bridegroom begins and the bride ends, but we're so part of him that we become part of the return offering to the father, in the spirit of their love, and it's a very Trinitarian action. It's all in the perichoresis, the dance, you know? This is sort of the mystery of iniquity though, it really is. I'm impressed by that Last Supper scene where Peter asked John, you know, who is it? And so he asked John, and Peter asked, you know, who is it? And then the Lord says, I want this, I dip this, you know, piece of bread. And certainly for Peter, it was a sign. you know, that he was a dad looking for.

[37:51]

But the other thing that was going on there really, you know, this particular gesture of feeding someone is so intimate and so full of love. And it just didn't register on Judas at all. I mean, it was absolutely As between two men, or even with someone that you love, to feed each other, it is so intimate and such a loving gesture. And this is what was going on. Peter was interested in finding something out, but Jesus was still interested in getting Judas. I'm sure. And it's absolutely, it's a real mystery how we can turn that down. But we can do it. The mistake, I guess, is to look at the historical personages in the scripture

[38:54]

and not identify with them. You know, when Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, I'd better hear him, you know, because they live in me, you know, when the prophets are speaking to Aaron and Israel, I'd better, you know, because I think our first tendency is always to put our arm over Jesus' shoulders, and you tell them, you know, go get them, you know, and rather than hearing him, because he's challenging us, you know, he's letting us, you know, and he's not, he doesn't come to condemn, he comes to save, he comes to reveal this to ourselves, and the anguish that he must feel that we won't receive him, you know, because we're insisting that we're God ultimately, if we, you know, we won't, we won't hear him. I guess the woman, she was so poor, she was so stripped, she knew she was a sinner.

[40:00]

I mean, she knew she was a sinner. The rich man has no clue of his sinfulness because he sees himself as being righteous. And Mary, who reveals herself, behold, the handmaid of the Lord, literally the little slave girl of the Lord, We call her queen of angels, queen of heaven and earth, but the only reason why she's queen is because she's the slave girl. She's only interested in being of service. And that, in God's complete, it is inversion, the inversion of how we view what's greatness. His idea of greatness is the desire to serve, to give yourself completely. and Mary in revealing herself as, I'm a little slave girl in the Lord, you know, she's not at all thinking, well, you mean they're going to call me a placidina? Well, at least finally somebody has recognized me for who I am.

[41:03]

That comment jars her because her desire is only to be, you know, she's being set up as a sign of what Christ tells us a true discipleship is. The greatest is a little child, the greatest will serve the rest, you know? So, this woman is so stripped, she has nothing, no barrier, not even her pride anymore to keep her from seeing Christ. And that's probably why Benedict was so insistent on building up humility, you know, or stripping down to what humility is, because only when we're ultimately stripped Are we able to really receive the love that casts out all fear? You can say there was a similarity. You know, I'm about to get into dangerous borders, shameless, but I've been on big dangerous borders before. Me too. In the prostitution, or the adultery, whatever you want to call it, in that

[42:09]

It's a form of maybe a form of wanting to belong. You feel it kind of just as the money is a way of a person piling up things. climbing up, in this case, money, and so he can't see beyond the money, but his money is a way of, what do you call it, security, man? I tend to say, seeing as, well, that's your way of belonging, because you really don't belong, you feel such a loneliness, and you've got to have all these No, I think that's exactly it. She gets stripped of it. Now she's abject loneliness or aloneness as a result of... Now you're looking face to face with the one who loves you. He can't even see you.

[43:13]

Now he's got all this money. Just going back to the original image of Adam and Eve, I mean, they're completely naked, they're completely vulnerable, they're completely exposed, they're able to be seen and see, to be loved. And then they cover themselves as soon as they become self-focused. I mean, and so, I mean, that's what we do with sexual relationships, that's what we do with money, that's what we do with our prestige. We're covering ourselves, because we all of a sudden, we become self-focused and we realize that we're vulnerable, you know, and we want to somehow protect ourselves. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, that's what the rich man's done with his money and the Pharisees are doing with their sense of righteousness and prestige. You know, they're hiding in the bushes, they're covering themselves with leaves. Now we deal with degrees, we deal with religious habits, we deal with all sorts of things. And that's not to say that any of these things are bad, but we can sometimes use them as fake leaves to cover ourselves, because we do realize that we're absolutely vulnerable and that we're poor.

[44:28]

if we're truly receptive to his love, we're ultimately going to say, well, I'm naked and I'm poor, then that's what he wants me to be. And then I forget myself just to be seen by him. And somehow, there's the dignity. The dignity is being so weak and so poor. It's an aversion to the way sin thinks. It's funny, I mean, I think we can all relate to those ways in which our own insecurities begin to cover themselves and hide in our pride. It's a little like Peter, between him, all of what you were saying, and what I was saying, from a vocational way. But, you know, when the Lord looks and gazes at Peter, that he's just gone and done exactly what the Lord said you're going to do, but Peter says, I don't know how I'm going to do it, I don't know how he does it.

[45:39]

It says the Lord, you know, looked at him, gazed at him. Then it's your choice to To see how the Saints are hurting now, sometimes one of the most uncomfortable images for me of Benedict is him rolling naked in the thorns. I mean, especially when you see that depicted in our work, it's really, you know. And yet, that's probably one of the most beautiful movements, gestures of his life, because he's basically just literally exposed, like all pretense of dignity is lost. He's just like, you know, you know, in this Desperate desire to be able to be a fuller gift of himself absolutely no no sense of his you know Concern for his own dignity, and who's watching now? You know Francis does stuff like this constantly Frank's forever running Testing testing Check one two check check sibilance check I Think we're good

[46:52]

All right. Yeah, today's the official, today's the real day. Okay. God, come to my assistance. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Well, I have this really magnificent text on Grunewald and his works. He's a 16th century, early 16th century artist. And I forgot to bring it, but fortunately your library seems to have some of him in it. I want to talk about the passion of Christ. And I want to do so by means of referring to a triptych that I'm going to leave out for you.

[47:58]

I wish that I had my big book because it's big and you can really see the colors. But this has got some colors in it and it's got different elements. It's really real nice close-ups of it. And I'll leave it marked as to which part I'm talking about. But the triptych occurs, It's placed in, or was originally placed in a, are you familiar with it, anybody? It's a, yeah, yeah. Oh, have you? Oh, my gosh. Beato Tei, because that was, yeah, yeah, right, exactly. It is in Heim, and it was in a leper hospital, or I mean, a plague hospital, and from what I gather, the whole institution was probably about the size of your rectory, your refectory, rather, huh? And on the back wall, of course, is an altar and steps leading up to the altar. And then the altar piece would have been this triptych. And the triptych itself, well, the altar itself, the chapel, was the hospital.

[49:03]

So people, plague victims, would be lying in their beds or cots facing the altar. So the chapel, the hospital, was one entity. and there was a nursing order of nuns there, and it was a specific form of a plague. They didn't realize at the time, but it was being caused by the rye in their bread that had fermented badly, I guess, and was causing, so I guess it wasn't really contagious. It came from what they were eating, but they didn't know, and it caused horrible sores, and anyhow, he was commissioned to paint this triptych, and Grunewald is a, really a mystic, I think, as an artist. And unfortunately, his career was cut short by the Reformation, and there wasn't much market anymore for the sort of art that he produced. He was primarily a religious artist, and really magnificent works on the passion of the mysteries of Christ.

[50:04]

Anyhow, This piece would open and there would be two more panels here unrelated specifically to this scene, but very much the characters that you have in your own triptych over the tabernacle. We see the Lord in the center, Our Lady in the arms of John, Mary Magdalene, and John the Baptist with the Agnus Dei, and he's pointing to Christ. Beginning with the figure of Christ, I guess I'll leave this out for you to look at. The figure of Christ in this depiction is a scale, maybe better than a scale, larger than the other figures. He's just a bit off-centered, and he is, well, his agony is probably more graphically detailed in this work than any art piece before this date.

[51:07]

His anguish is extreme. His torso is twisted. His feet are contorted. His fingers are writhing, literally writhing. His face is just an absolute portrait of anguish. And he seems to be apparently dead as he hangs on the cross, even his feet are twisted in a certain direction. His right arm sets an angle, and all of those who participate in the Passion, the angles of their own bodies conforms to his right arm. Mary and John and Mary Magdalene, each of them actually are presented in an angle, either falling back or leaning back, completely parallel to his right arm. Christ is covered with wounds that seem absolutely odd.

[52:19]

They're not exactly the slash marks. It's not a particularly bloody depiction of his anguish, of his passion, but he's covered with sores all over his body. What Grunewald has done is he's presented him as a plague victim. He's completely riddled with the markings of the plague. And the idea that he wants to present for these sufferers, these people who are undergoing a horrible, anguishing death, he presents Christ as bearing their suffering. Christ is suffering with them. Christ himself is a plague victim. That's the only way I can really understand, on my own approach, the suffering of Christ, that he's taken our sins on himself, you know, that he suffers for us, he suffers with us, and he suffers for us.

[53:23]

We looked the other day at the prophecy of Isaiah, It was our infirmities He bore, and by His stripes we are healed. And in that understanding, the idea that Christ suffers on our behalf, not that we ourselves don't suffer, but that He actually is the Lamb of God who has taken our sin, the consequence of our sin upon Himself, that He dies for us and bears the fullness, not just, you know, of every individual sin, not of, you know, the great mass of sin and not for every sinner, but that He actually bears the consequence of every glance away from the Father. every inclination of the human heart that is not purely receptive, that in his suffering, historically as it occurs in a moment of history, and yet there is a metahistorical element in which his passion contains the fullness of humanity from the fall of, in paradise,

[54:40]

to the last person, that we're somehow contained in that event, and he suffers with and for each one of us, that none of us, none of us suffers alone, and that in fact the full effect of our sins we will never know. because he dies in our place. He literally bears the consequence of our sin. I don't have any other way of understanding it, that it's not just a bad afternoon for a good man, you know? He doesn't just suffer physically and emotionally from abandonment, but that he knows each sin, each aversion of love in a very real way as if he's committed it. He confesses us, he confesses our sins on the cross that there isn't anything that I could think or say or do that he hasn't experienced.

[55:55]

But that doesn't take me away from the cross. In fact, as I become involved, as we become involved in recognizing what God has revealed to us in Christ, when we see the real kenosis of the Father in the person of Christ hanging upon the cross, we come to understand really what true beauty is, and that is Balthazar. I'm unrepentantly Balthazarian here. we lose ourselves in the experience of beauty. That in the experience of beauty we forget who we are and in this objective relationship we come to realize our real being of existence, a real reason for our existence and forgetting who we are. Just as in the act of love I really become who I am when I forget myself and completely receptive we're giving to another

[57:02]

I'm no longer even paying attention to what I'm breathing. a mother with a newborn child in her arms, no longer considering any pain or anything she's endured, she's lost in the wonder of this child, that in the experience of beauty we lose ourselves. And in that experience of beauty, when we've completely lost ourselves, there's a communion, there's a union, there's a coming together as we actually receive objectively from another the essence of their being. In that light, as we behold Christ upon the cross, what exactly should be hideous and horrible to us, what should repel us, is what draws us. and we see in Christ on the cross the fullness of the Father's love revealed, we see the incarnation of His kenosis really made manifest, that nothing is withheld in giving Himself to us, and that it is a self-giving, it is a self-pouring forth.

[58:18]

There is nothing in our condition that could ever come close to revealing the way in which the Father exists and the Father loves, apart from Christ on the cross. That in that moment, as we behold Him, as we love Him, if we truly are receptive to Him there, then we are transformed, and we are somehow brought into that mystery. And there is anguish. But we don't suffer the result of our sin, we suffer because He suffers. And we become united with His action upon the cross. Saint Paul says in the first chapter of the Colossians, or at least the author of the Colossians says, for your sake I make up in my own body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. What is lacking in the suffering of Christ?

[59:20]

Nothing is lacking in the suffering of Christ. All that's lacking is our availability, our disposition towards that suffering. And as we unite ourselves and really receive the forcefulness, the reality of that event. As we really perceive that, somehow we become a part of his intercession, second chapter of Lumen Gentium talks about the priesthood of Christ, how that priesthood is realized in all believers. And in fact, as the priest, he mediates. And we become a part of that mediation. We become a part of that offering. We become a part of that sacrifice. We suffer. We suffer because he suffers. But our suffering is for others.

[60:22]

We can't sanctify ourselves. We're somehow brought into his great offering and our suffering is a response of love to him. I think Paul says, for your sake, I make up in my own body that which is lacking in the suffering of Christ. We have, as Christians, the opportunity to be extensions of his mission, of his ministry, of his passion, because he lives in us. And so the witness of the martyrs makes sense. And that as they go through excruciating anguish, their own peoples eventually turn to Christ. And the odd experience that Tertullian presents of seeing people going to their deaths in the arena, and originally going to jeer, to laugh, to mock, and then somehow being so deeply affected by these witnesses that they themselves, some of them spectators, will become Christians.

[61:33]

that there is a participation in Christ's passion, a receptivity to Him, that we can't endure to be there if we don't love Him. We can't, by our own will, determine to stay there. Peter tried, and it didn't work. He couldn't endure it. His love wasn't yet stripped enough. In time, it would be. In time, he, too, would be brought to Golgotha, as would all of the apostles. but they couldn't endure it yet. One pure creature could, and because she could stay present, so could others, I presume. I think Runevald wants to present that in the way he presents Mary, in particular, She's the most dramatic of the participants in this depiction. She stands out because she's all dressed in white.

[62:36]

And if you look closely, and you can see, fortunately, there are some nice close-ups, her face is dead. If you can see it in color, she's pale. Her eyes are closed. She, in all appearances, she's passed out. She seems to be dead with Christ. The sword has passed her. She's not suffering because of her sin, we know that, but she's suffering in communion with Him. She's been brought into this event and she's participating in the fullness of it. She doesn't understand. She can't comprehend. How could she? You know, I can't buy it that she knows that, well, this is terrible, but in two days it'll all be better. She's there, she's present to the horror and the reality of the situation, and her fiat is somehow made perfect. Adrienne Ronspire, if I dare quote her, has a very beautiful parallel made

[63:41]

in her book on prayer, Worlds of Prayer, she says that once she said yes to an angel and then she made that yes in joy she could have never completely comprehend it. She could have never understood that that yes made would lead to this horror that she stands before. But as she stands present to this horror she realizes that that yes could only lead here. And to this event, she says yes again. Yes to the darkness, yes to the abandonment, yes to what she can't comprehend because she knows that somehow the father must allow this. And that yes rips her entire being, rips her open. And being a doctor, she says, never has a woman been so torn by a birth Mary's presented here as being dead with Christ, and yet her hands are raised, pleading.

[64:50]

Although everything about her is passed out, she's interceding. She's interceding because Christ intercedes for us to the Father. John holds her in his arms. Were it not for John, she'd be on the ground in this picture. And what's interesting is to look at the face of John, and that's why I really wish I brought my big book, to see the face of John and the face of Christ, his face mirrors the face of Christ. As Christ is looking from the cross, actually more directly into the eyes of Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross, and yet he's dead. John's face is angled and looks directly into the face of the mother. And the position of his mouth, the shape of his eyes, everything mirrors what's happened in Christ. In ministering to her, in his compassionate ministering to her, somehow he is sharing in the passion of Christ.

[66:00]

In essence, he's sharing the passion of Christ by caring for her. She, interestingly, is decked out all in white. She's dressed as a bride. She's clearly in a bridal gown and yet Kuhnewald very cleverly has made that bridal gown modeled upon the habit of the nursing sisters in this plague hospital. Mary Magdalene is at the foot, and of course the typical Mary of the medieval period. She's brought her alabaster jar of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, the woman who anoints Jesus' feet, the woman that we talked about last night. They all become Mary Magdalene. She's a type. She's a type. She is the repentant sinner. If Mary is the new Eve, in the sense that she is the Eve who has not sinned, She is the Eve who never said no, has only said yes. Mary Magdalene is also a type of a new Eve.

[67:04]

She's the repentant Eve, the Eve who has found that she has been in adultery, in prostitution, has erred, who now turns to Christ, realizing as Gomer does in Hosea's prophecy, she has nowhere else to turn. What's fascinating about this depiction is that it's a cover, and that you can open it. And when you open it, you see a whole new set of mysteries contained directly behind Christ on the cross. is the Virgin and Child, but it's not the historic Virgin and Child. It's certainly Mary, but it's certainly the Church holding Christ in her lap. She's dressed in glory. She's arrayed like a queen. She's in all the royal dignity. And the Christ child who's playing with her is holding his rosaries.

[68:08]

Because the idea through the mysteries, through the contemplative mysteries of the rosary, through we come to participate in this great mystery of Christ. And behind her, Lady Wisdom beckons us into her chamber. She's kind of a transparent figure and she's beckoning us to come feast at her table. Directly on the panel behind the Virgin Mary, who is passed out in John's arm, is Mary encountering Gabriel in the Annunciation. And so the yes at the cross is seen as being an extension of the yes at Nazareth. And she is leaning back at the words, the greeting of the angel in shock, and the angle of her body conforms exactly to the angle that she's now participating in at Golgotha. On the backside of the body of Christ, on that back panel,

[69:14]

is the resurrected Lord. And this is an event you just don't want to miss. Oh, here's a nice picture of John's close-up. You can see him twisting and pleading in the face of Christ. So you can go through all of this. And here's Mary holding the Christ child and Lady Wisdom. You can see that villain right there. He goes through all of that. Oh, it's nice to point out, too, that the child that she holds is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but the swaddling clothes are the loincloth that Christ is wearing on the cross. That's a nice little touch, too. He makes all of these connections. But directly behind Christ, who hangs on the cross, is the resurrected Christ. And if Christ on the cross is in anguish and twisted and tormented, the resurrected Christ is buoyant. I mean, everything about him is light and flowing.

[70:17]

He's not leaping. He's actually soaring out of the tomb. And arms and legs that were once twisted are now free-floating. and the walls which were so graphically depicted and so anguished are now open and light is emanating from each of the places where he's been pierced. A halo of light, the nimbus that encompasses him actually looks more like the sun and the contours of his head are actually lost in light. All you can really see are eyes and a mouth poking out from this great explosion of light. And he's joyous. He's happy. He's rejoicing. He's achieved our salvation. He's conquered death. The Gospels, all of them in their own way,

[71:21]

present an image of Christ offering himself for us upon the cross. All of the Gospels, of course, are written with a direction towards the crucifixion, towards the great expiation. in a way to somehow direct us towards that and help us to flow from that, to live in the light of that, because, of course, the death isn't the end. If the death was the end, then we would just be talking about a figure like Socrates, a great martyr to truth. But the death is, in fact, the sign through which we enter into the Trinitarian communion. The resurrection and the crucifixion, the resurrection and the passion are two sides of the same mystery.

[72:28]

And that because he lives, we are able to die with him. Because he lives, We're able to enter and share into his cross. In fact, he tells us to pick up our crosses and follow him. Our crosses aren't going to save us. Our crosses are extensions of his cross. Nothing we can do can save ourselves. It's a reception of who he is and what he's achieved for us. And he desires to live for us. He desires to live in us. And because he lives, he lives in the church. his mission continues in the church. He continues to act and save and suffer for others because the church continues to live in him and we continue to suffer as an extension of his life-giving death, of his saving resurrection

[73:31]

But we can never think of suffering as being an end of itself, because within that participation in His passion is His resurrection. I think that we'll talk about this more tomorrow, but it's birth pangs. It's birth pangs, and that's what Revelation wants to present to us. That sharing in Christ's cross is birth pangs to a new life. And such birth pangs are certainly worth what he desires to achieve for us. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. So, I'm going to leave this for you guys to paste. Unfortunately, it's got all the... Well, I think it's got just about all... I wish you had a whole thing so you could see.

[74:36]

This is the interior part. You can see that this actually is the shape of the panel. With the crucifixion on it. Where is it? Ah, here it is, of course. So you can see that that interior part is the shape, and then on the other side is the enunciation. But anyhow. I'll look. I think we have some place. Do you? Yes, I think. I can't put my, but I'll look. It's on the internet. There's a real spectacular book that a friend gave to me, because he knew I liked this. And it was kind of him, but it was really, really a nice expose on it. I think some place we have opening up, I'm not sure. Well, that would be great, I'll tell you. Our reception is very difficult to find things.

[75:37]

I found two Grunewald texts. But I mean, there's a lot of things that may be in another That would be great because if you could see the way it's laid out so that you can see what the front panel is and how it opens. It's really a masterpiece. It actually is on a a hinge, what do you call it? It turns around, so that then you can see the passion of St. Anthony, because it's St. Anthony. The hospital is dedicated to St. Anthony. And so you see his suffering and a plague victim lying as he's being tormented by the demons. So again, his torment by the demons being presented as a participation in the passion of Christ. Because he's not suffering because he's sinning, he's suffering basically as he dies to himself. I was surprised to see that in hospitals and in the middle of time, they were really in a chapel.

[76:55]

Yeah? Yeah, there was another place that I was a little bit... Easter friends, a little bit. kind of in the middle, and I don't remember the name, and there was this huge room, like the refectory, and the end is the altar, and then some sort of And the way I gather, when I looked at the organizations, I guess that the beds were lined up to face, so that they were, you know, basically lying in bed and dying and hearing masks, you know. And in this space they were all against the wall. There was one bed, one bed, one bed. All against the wall. Sort of like a... And then the center was empty. Oh, that would make sense, because then they would be able to move around and administer. Because I guess they couldn't have a lot of people in these hospitals. It's amazing. Our infirmary doctor was designed, and you'll see it, for an altar in a niche, and the rooms, they're all glass, were not the right to open up, so somebody could celebrate nice things.

[78:09]

Really? Because I thought so, down in the courtyard. But right down here, where the pills are and things. Along that corridor, if you walk across, you'll see there's a niche there for an altar. And I see all the rooms, they're all glass doors so they would open up and the people could lie in bed and still have mass. That's beautiful. Same idea. With some of the numbers of suffering and deaths in our own days, most may be just banal. That's, you know, it's just overwhelming. Of course, they don't make any sense, right? The billions of, you know, children in our own time. Well, the 20th century is the bloodiest century. I think they estimate more people have been killed in war in the 20th century than all other centuries combined. It's just, yeah, we've almost become like, yeah, we've become immune to the effects of suffering anymore.

[79:22]

by a Jewish man, but you know, I mean, he was taken to Aqaba, then died, you know, because they wouldn't let him preach, you know, and then, I can't remember, anyway, the last point now, but the reason for They made death, as I say, so banal that they denied life so much that now our living really is, in a sense, the affirmation of what death would have been. In other words, they're living under these impossible circumstances and so forth. There are so many people who live under these, and of course they're in the concentration camps. that was living was the only way they could express the God's love for humanity and the worthwhile of human beings. There's a fella who, actually he's a good friend of mine, he comes to St.

[80:31]

Vincent, well he's Jewish, he's a Holocaust survivor, and so I always get him to come talk to us. We go out to breakfast, we go out for pancakes about once a month, I don't know, it's his thing. And I met him because there was this woodworking older fella who was doing some carpentry work for us in the seminary, And then he invited, that's his golfing partner, this fella, he's a holocaust survivor, and he goes all through the area. Actually, he won the, he was presented with the Elie Wiesel Award two years ago in New York. And no, it must have been longer, because he was presented by Al Gore, because he was still vice president. But anyhow, he He's probably not sound. This little old guy used to own a shoe shop. And he describes his experience. He was brought in there when he was 13 and basically grew up in a concentration camp.

[81:36]

And when he got out, he had no family whatsoever at all left. Anyhow, I asked him once if he was ever able to forgive. you know, the atrocity, you know, and he said this once, I've asked him on other occasions, you know, but he didn't seem to give the same response, but I'll never forget the one response, his mouth full of anger at breakfast, and he said, he said, if I didn't forgive, then the Nazis would have won, you know, and interestingly enough, he seems to, Well, he's Polish, you know, so a lot of exposure to Catholicism, so great respect for priests. And he knows more prayers to the Virgin than most Catholics, I know, because he had to go to school and learn them.

[82:37]

But it seems he even oddly has sort of a devotion to her. But he does believe in Christ. He is Jewish. He doesn't spit at it. But anyway, that was his comment. If I didn't forgive him, the Nazis would have won. I guess that's the sense, you know. We're trying to break the human spirit, and that's what I'm saying, that it wasn't just carelessness and lack of efficiency in the camps. He came to realize that everything was done precisely to break our kind of hope, our human spirit. And so that overcoming, that was the way that he really preached God and his love for us and the value of human beings. The opposite way you'd think. Because you couldn't preach it any other way, I suppose.

[83:45]

It was kind of a tragedy, really. There was a number of Jewish intellectuals who were the backbone of the Jewish community, and courage, and teaching, and so on. After the Holocaust was over, then, within a couple of years, or five years, so many of them committed suicide. Of course, not knowing what that was like. One thing that this fellow told me, and the same thing he said to Viktor Frankl, he said that everyone who lived somehow was living for someone else. Franklin says he was trying to live for his wife, but his wife was dead. He didn't know. And this fellow, he said, well, I was staying alive for my mother. He said, I just knew that she wouldn't be able to make it if I didn't live. And he said, no. He said, actually, my mother and sister were killed the night that we arrived. I didn't know. He said that everybody who lived was living for someone else, that there was somebody else that they were trying to live for.

[84:51]

And here Christ is dying for everybody. In fact, living for us all. How much we know, we never know that. God's love for us and going through the whole thing for our sake. Yeah, but the idea that this is, well, this is just trying to capture it, that the Christ on the cross is really or sign of how the Father exists in holding nothing back and begetting His Son and absolutely selfless pouring forth.

[85:57]

And so when Christ says things like, you know, If you die to yourself, that's when you live, and the greatest among you will serve the rest. That complete sense of selflessness, that's where we see the Father. We see the Father expressed when such pure love interacts with the fallen race. We see the way in which he exists, just complete self-giving, holding absolutely nothing back. And then that's given for us, I mean, to be available to that. to be disposed to that. The idea, I guess, is being that we can't be available to that, really available to that.

[87:04]

The less self there is in a sinful sense, the more selfless we are, the more we are sin-free, the more fully we're able to participate in this event, you know? So, any pride just can't stand present to that mystery. It has to fling. I mean, even the apostles had to fling. They weren't ready yet. They were finally brought there, but they weren't ready yet. I can't chastise Peter and the others because I don't think I would have been able to stand it either. And somehow that Mary, that pure receptivity, that's the kind of heart that really receives Christ.

[88:05]

So the sacrament devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary are actually more profound than we give them credit. It's the heart that is completely receptive to Christ. If you excuse me, I have to go prepare for mail. So, we're good. All right, I'm going to clean this up. Yeah, I'll leave it out here. Oh yeah, you can go through the hole.

[88:40]

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