Rest a while

A very early Christian manuscript is the 6th-century Rabula Gospel Book.

Produced in Syria and completed in AD 586 at the Monastery of St. John of Zagba, the texts of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are presented in Syriac.

The text is one of the earliest Christian manuscripts to be illuminated. (An illuminated text is one decorated with coloured borders and illustrations. One of the most widely known is the Book of Kells.)

Folio 14v in the Rabula Gospel Book manuscript is an illustration highlighting today’s feast of Pentecost. The illustration shows six men standing either side of a woman.

Fast forward some 1000 years.

Around 1600 Doménikos Theotokópoulos — known as El Greco — painted his Pentecost, now in the Prado in Madrid.

Again, we see a woman taking centre stage surrounded by men, and indeed there is the face of a second woman visible.

Fast forward to the present day and we find a painting with the same title as both the Rabula Gospels and that of El Greco, namely “Pentecost.”

Painted by the American artist Jen Norton in 2021, it too shows a woman surrounded by a group of twelve men.

Indeed, from the beginning of the 12th century Pentecost images increasingly put Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the centre of the image among the apostles.

There is, in fact, no Scriptural reference to the mother of Jesus having been present.

So, why include Mary? And why put this woman centre stage?

Today’s feast day is known as the birth of the Church, illustrated by those in the upper room having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, then going out to tell others: Parthians, Medes and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, of Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene; travellers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism; Cretans and Arabs.

Now, that is quite a collection. And furthermore, each heard the word in their own language, “we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.” (Acts 2:1–11)

Might it be that our Church ought to have the feminine centre stage? Might it be that our Church, born of a group of men gathered around the feminine, is being called on this birthday to gather once again around the feminine?

Ascension Sunday — that moment when it came time for Jesus the Christ to conclude his earthly ministry and return to his place with his Abba/Father.

I would invite you to reflect on two “other than” paintings of this moment of Ascension.

The first is titled “The Ascension of Christ” and is by the German artist Hans Suess Von Kulmbach. Painted in 1513, the picture now hangs in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

What I find striking is very little of the ascending figure of Jesus, the Christ, is visible — shins and a pair of bare feet! What is in sharp focus is those gathered to farewell Jesus.

Maybe, that is the point of the Ascension story; not the one departing rather those staying!

This is highlighted by the second artwork. Painted sometime in the 18th century by Hans Stiegler, it is part of a diptych on the North Gallery of the Amandus Church, Freiberg, Germany.

Certainly, more of the person of Jesus the Christ is visible, however, a close inspection of the painting reveals something extraordinary — He is leaving his shoes behind!

The 16th century Spanish mystic St. Teresa of Ávila may provide us with an answer.

There is a prayer attributed to Teresa which is printed under the title, “Christ has no body now but yours.”

The prayer reads: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Maybe, the shoes have been left for us to fill, and rather than looking skyward, we are invited to step into the shoes of the other!

Winnie the Pooh is a fictional teddy bear created by English author A.A. Milne.

The main character — sometimes called simply Pooh or Edward Bear — is a good-natured, yellow-furred, honey-loving bear who lives in the forest surrounding the Hundred Acre Wood.

His companions are Eeyore, a gloomy gray donkey; Piglet, a timid pig; Owl, a pontificating bird; the meddlesome Rabbit; and Kanga, an energetic kangaroo whose inquisitive baby, Roo, lives in her pouch.

Pooh, a self-described “Bear of Very Little Brain,” gets himself into all kinds of sticky situations.

At one point Piglet inquires of Pooh, “How do you spell love?” Pooh responds, “You don’t spell it, you feel it.”

And might I add, “You do it,” which is what we are celebrating these weeks of Easter — love as a verb.

American author Frederick Buechner writes: “If by some magic you could eliminate the pain you are caused by the pain of someone you love, I for one cannot imagine working such magic because the pain is so much a part of the love that the love would be vastly diminished, unrecognizable, without it.”

“To suffer in love for another’s suffering is to live life not only at its fullest but at its holiest.”

• The passage was originally published in “Now and Then,” published by HarperCollins in 1991.

John B Keane was an Irish playwright who lived in Listowel, Co. Kerry. He wrote some very hard-hitting plays and was a man of deep faith.

Towards the end of his life, John contracted terminal cancer.

Around that time, he was asked on a TV show if he believed in life after death. By way of an answer, he told the following story.

He had a friend, Jack, who lived in Co. Donegal. The trouble was they hadn’t seen each other in years.

One day, John phoned Jack. They arranged to meet in Galway at noon on a particular day, Galway being about halfway between Co. Kerry in the south and Donegal in the north.

As John was about to leave home, his wife said to him, “But you haven’t seen Jack in years. How can you be sure he will show up?”

John responded, “Jack is a reliable man. If he says he’ll be there, he’ll be there.”

Then, turning to the interviewer, he said, “As for your question — I firmly believe that Jesus is a reliable person. He has told us that he has gone to prepare a place for us. He will be there. And so will our loved ones.”

The sculpture of John B Keane stands in the Listowel town square. It was created by father-and-son sculptor team Seamus and James Connolly.