Why hast Thou forsaken me?

30 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Abrahamic Religions, Human Condition, Spirituality, the Bible, The Eucharist

Tags

Anamnèse, Gethsemani, Lamartine, Les Sept Paroles du Christ, Mass, Seven sayings of Christ, the Canonical Hours, vigilance

The seven sayings of Jesus on the cross

Ten years ago, I published a post on the Canonical hours and noted that literary critic Northrop Frye suggested that these words: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” expressed the very essence of the tragic mode. They expressed:

a sense of his exclusion, as a divine being from the society of the Trinity.
Northrop Frye [1]

Jesus was no longer God.

The seven sayings are:

The seven sayings, being “last words”, may provide a way to understand what was ultimately important to this man who was dying on the cross.
(See Sayings of Jesus on the cross, Wikipedia.)

They do. The sayings of Jesus on the cross epitomize the burden of incarnation. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and had to leave the Garden of Eden, but they would be redeemed. Not only was Jesus made flesh, but he died a cruel death: crucifixion.

The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, commemorates the Last Supper. It invites an anamnesis. The host, l’hostie, represents the body of Christ. « Le Christianisme (…) utilise le pain pour représenter le corps de Jésus-Christ ».

“[D]o this in remembrance of me.”
« Ensuite il prit du pain; et, après avoir rendu grâces, il le rompit, et le leur donna, en disant: Ceci est mon corps, qui est donné pour vous; faites ceci en mémoire de moi.» (Luc 22 : 19).

During the Last Supper, Jesus of Nazareth knew that he had been betrayed and that he would be arrested. He was alone when his agony began.

The Canonical Hours

As for the nine (originally seven) Canonical Hours, they constitute vigilance. At the Garden of Gethsemane, during his agony, Jesus’ disciples would not keep watch with Him. Jesus was abandoned (See Matthew 26: 36 – 46).

Now Cenobite Monks, Monks who live under an abbey, observe nine Hours. Vigil was added, which precedes Matins. Monks keep watch night and day. Jesus, the Redeemer was a man and vulnerable. Vigils are kept the day or evening before Feasts. They may include or be replaced by fasting.

The Canonical hours are:

Vigil
Matins (nighttime)
Lauds (early morning)
Prime (first hour of daylight)
Terce (third hour)
Sext (noon)
Nones (ninth hour)
Vespers (sunset evening)
Compline (end of the day)

It is my understanding that the evening song or, evensong, comprises the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon’s song of praise. It is a canticle. The Hours are mostly Psalms, but include Antiphons, Responsories and Canticles.

“Why hast Thou forsaken me?”

This saying is Matthew 27: 46 & Psalm 22:1, but in my French psautier, the relevant Psaume is numbered 21. In my Bible, however, the same Psalm is numbered 22 (21):

« Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, pourquoi m’abandonner ? »
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
[Why hast Thou forsaken me?]

Jesus was a Jew and he spoke Aramaic. Eli would be Elijah. These words were uttered when Jesus was dying on the cross. In the ninth hour he said: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? They are the fourth of seven sayings of Christ on the Cross (Les Sept Paroles du Christ).

Conclusion

On the cross, Jesus, God the Son, fully assumed his humanity, the incarnation. His disciples would not keep watch with him during his agony (Matthew 26: 36 – 46), and he was crucified (Psalm 22: [21]). All His sayings on the cross express the human condition, but none so powerfully as: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” In « L’Isolement », Alphonse de Lamartine wrote: « Un seul être vous manque, et tout est dépeuplé » (Only one being is missing, and all is a wasteland). Lamartine borrowed this line from Nicolas-Germain Léonard (1844 – 1893). On the death of his daughter, Lamartine also wrote Gethsémani ou La Mort de Julia: « C’était le seul anneau de ma chaîne brisée » (She was the only link in my broken chain). Why hast Thou… Père, père…

I learned liturgy and liturgical music as a student of musicology and the theory of music. Jesus’ sayings on the cross have been set to music by several composers (see Sayings of Jesus on the cross, Wikipedia). To this body of music, Théodore Dubois (1837 – 1924) contributed: Les Sept Paroles du Christ, an Oratorio.

RELATED ARTICLES

A God Who Allows Suffering by Anna Waldherr atsunnyside blog
Canonical Hours or the Divine Office (19 November 2011)
Feasts & Liturgy, Page

_________________________
[1] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973 [1957]), p. 36.

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Les Sept Paroles du Christ de Théodore Dubois interprété par l’Ensemble vocal Abbaye de la Cambre

Bronzino‘s depiction of the crucifixion with three nails, no ropes, and an *hypopodium* standing support, c. 1545. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Remembrance: Anamnèse

05 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Creation

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Anamnèse, anamnesis, Creation, God, Sacred Text, the Bible

*William Blake’s Newton (1795), depicting him as a divine geometer. Image Credit: William Blake Archive/Wikipedia (universetoday.com)*

No, you have not been forgotten. You are precious to me. I have been occupied and preoccupied. So, I do not have an article ready, but I would like to mention the concept of anamnesis, anamnèse, in connection with the Bibles moralisées. I will, however, exclude the word moralisées. I do not have a facsimile of one of these Bibles, which means I have not read them.

Anamnèse is a term used in medicine primarily. A doctor researches a patient’s history to make a correct diagnosis and choose the appropriate treatment.

However, an anamnèse may occur elsewhere. In Catholic liturgy, it refers to a prayer which, in the Mass, follows the Consecration and evokes the Redemption (une “[p]rière qui, dans la messe, suit la consécration et rappelle le souvenir de la Rédemption). This prayer is relatively recent. I could not find it in my ageing missal (See Anamnèse, CNRTL.fr. and Parts of the Mass.)

In the New Testament, we read that Jesus was incarnated: « le Verbe s’est fait chair » (John 1:14). God the Son, of the Holy Trinity, a mystery, was made flesh. He is the Word, la parole, or logos, but He is God the Son and incarnated. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree and were driven out of Paradise. They were redeemed. That is the Biblical account and it is also John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Catholics added an anamnèse to the Mass, referring to the Redemption.

Jesus was born to Mary in a humble crêche where He was visited, first, by the shepherds and, later, by the Kings of Orient. He was crucified and died, but he was resurrected and remains the Redeemer. For many Christians, although Jesus is invisible, He is still among us. Christians pray to him and they pray to his mother, Mary. The Virgin Mary is viewed as a kind woman who may speak to her son Jesus and ask Him to help us in times of grief, such as pandemics, wars, or social upheavals.

I asked theologians if Jesus had left a message. Jesus Himself did not. He did not write a text. Jesus’s disciples told his parables and that He taught unconditional love. The Sermon on the Mount, however, was told by his disciples, Matthew to be precise. Moreover, Jesus did not found a Church. Christianity was founded by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (CE 306–337).

As for our thirteenth-century Gods, they may have satisfied the medieval mind and my rather childlike mind, but they border on Paradox literature. Not only does God use the compass, which has yet to be invented, but he also looks like the human beings he is creating. He created us in his image. This history called for other accounts of Creation, such as the Big Bang (le Grand Boum). But the Bible, the Quran, Epics, Mythologies, Sacred Texts, and the disputed Totemism are anamnèses that explain the human condition somewhat naïvely at times but also beautifully. These provide proof that we need to know where we come from and that we wish to ennoble ourselves.

So, there was a great deluge, but Noah’s Ark saved humanity and its animals. Jonah, a prophet, was inside a whale that protected him. Moreover, although there was no compass before man[1] was created, humans themselves have created extraordinary machines. Man has travelled to the moon and man has created works of art, works of literature and music we call divine. We cannot create an autonomous human being, but we have been creators.

There is a measure of godliness among mortals.[2]

____________________
[1] Man includes women.
[2] This discussion is to be continued.

Love to everyone 💕