Greetings Dear Reader,
Around the world tonight, as the darkness gathers, there are
many people celebrating Tenebrae. The word,
from Latin, literally means “darkness”.
The service is one where “In the Roman Catholic Church, matins and lauds
for the last three days of Holy Week, at which candles are successively
extinguished.”
For today we sit at dinner, most of us oblivious to what is
about to occur. Judas knows because he
has been to the Pharisees and carries with him the darkness of pushing Jesus
toward destiny. The Pharisees know and
carry the malevolent darkness of hatred turned toward the God the vowed to
defend.
You see, Judas sought for the Messiah and found him. He saw the miracles, the healing, the dead
raised to life. His darkness is the desire
for God to conform to Judas’ image of him.
He cannot see that pushing God to act in that image is idolatry. He cannot see that his walking in the shadows
has helped him become accustomed to the song of darkness.
The Pharisees are willing to use God’s money to kill
Jesus. They pay Judas out of the
treasury. They claim to serve the God of
Abraham, Moses, and David. They fail to
see that the carpenter they hate is the GOD-man they seek. The question his authority, his motive, and
his love. Like the Pharisees, we all
want proof of God’s being with us, Immanuel, until he stands in front of
us. Then we do not want his light to
shine on our shadowy dark following.
Someone else sees the gathering darkness Dear Reader. Jesus sees it. The weight has already begun to gather on him
like a cloak of death. The darkness in
the men he loves, his disciples dims the world in which he walks. He recalls the shadows of the past. The shadowy stable where he cried his way
into the world seems far away in human time.
The shadow of Death that took his foster father stretches back toward
him. The shadow on Judas’ face where the
man will no longer look him in the eye brings a tear to it.
It is only Wednesday.
The shadow of the cross is two days away. Tonight, we must remember the darkness Dear
Reader. We must embrace the Light that
is in the darkness and who is our only way out of it. We are only part way there but the shadows
are growing long, the sun is getting low, and the darkness encroaches on our
celebration. I challenge you to sit in
the darkness in silence for a space tonight.
Ponder what it costs for the light to be gone, even for a brief time.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis Thorn:
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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