Thursday, April 21, 2011

Holy Week, Absence, and Anticipation

It's been a very long time since I've posted. Perhaps the world of doctoral studies can have that effect on a person. The long, deep, hidden immersion into a life that, by all external appearances, can be misunderstood and questioned about its validity or "productivity," or application to real life. But then again, didn't the Lord Jesus live this hidden life for thirty years? Not that I'm comparing the life of a doctoral student to the hidden life of Christ--manual labor is not intellectual labor; the intellectual life poses temptations to pride perhaps unparalleled by any other way of life--but I've always liked to think that perhaps the more fruitful reflections on the life of Christ might be found by taking a starting point from the fact that 90% of his life is unknown to us.

Holy Thursday--the hiddenness; the isolation; the suffering; the pain; the frustration; the overwhelming anxiety; the anticipation of death: the "great desire" to eat this Last supper with us; so the Triduum is here. So Lent comes to an end. So death is imminent. And Life again triumphs; life again transforms; life again conquers. And so does hope and joy.

Random musings in the midst of a paper...

1 comment:

harada57 said...
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