Look to my coming at dawn...
Happy Easter, everyone
Holy Saturday is the strangest day of the year. It seems like for the disciples on that day it would have been a day of despair; all their hopes and expectations dashed to ruin. And there is that passage at the end of John’s Gospel where the disciples were sitting on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and could think of nothing to do except to go fishing. And who can blame them?
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Even in our time, when we know how the story ends, an odd calm and quiet falls over us after the great wrenching drama of the last week. As the Lord Himself said from the cross: “It is finished.” His mission is complete, and for us, for this moment alone of all the year, there is little to do but watch, remain quiet, mourn, rest and wait. He has made some very specific promises, but perhaps the only one really capable of perfect trust was His mother, who was closest to him and has “kept all these things in her heart” all this time.
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In the Anglo-Saxon poem, that we call "The Harrowing of Hell" we recall that the word, "harrowing comes from the Old English word 'hergian,' 'to harry, pillage, plunder'."
Harrowing: Christ has come to plunder the treasures of hell
But while it’s a quiet day for us, it’s a pretty busy one for Him.
You may have come across the term “harrowing of hell” but maybe not given it much thought. It’s not a popular part of salvation history for Latin (western) Christians in these times of our Great Forgetting. But in the East (Byzantine), Christians consider this a great day of emancipation.
Called the "Anastasis" in the Eastern tradition, the Harrowing of Hell recalls to us the O Antiphons of Advent, in which we anticipate the glorious restoration of Man to God by the coming of the Saviour. Christ is the "key of David" who opens the prison of death:
"O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; and lead your captive people into freedom."
From the earliest times the Anastasis has been depicted the same way: the triumphant Christ, carrying the instrument of our freedom - the Cross upon which he has just died - blasts open the gate of hades, under which the devil is crushed, and, gripping our First Parents by the wrists, hauls them out of the dark pit. Behind these two, all the righteous patriarchs and figures of Biblical history.
This ancient depiction was carried through from the Byzantine to the medieval period and preserved by the greatest western painters:
The wonderful scholarly blog, A Clerk of Oxford, provides us with some of the glories of ancient English Christianity for today.
There's a great stirring in Hell and we meet the last and greatest prophet of the people of Israel, Jesus' own cousin, John the Baptist, who for the last time fulfils his office of heralding the coming of Christ.
In the Anglo-Saxon poem, that we call "The Harrowing of Hell" we recall that the word, "harrowing comes from the Old English word 'hergian,' 'to harry, pillage, plunder'." Christ visits Hell, or the land of the dead as it was understood in the ancient world, a place of waiting for the just, and plunders it of all its treasures, the spirits of the righteous, foremost the Lord's own cousin, John the Forerunner, then the prophets and great men of the past, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, David and Zechariah...
The man John spoke to the inhabitants of hell, rejoicing explained boldly to the crowd about his kinsman's coming:
'Our Saviour promised me,
when he chose to send me on this journey,
that he would seek me again after six months,Lord of all people. Now that time is passed;
I full expect and believe
that today the Lord will come in search of us,
the victorious Son of God.'Then the Lord of mankind hastened to his journey.
The shield of the heavens wanted to destroy and demolish
the walls of hell, to carry off the people of the city,
most righteous of all kings.In that battle he gave no thought for helmeted warriors
nor would he bring mail-clad soldiers
to the gates of that fortress; but the locks fell apart,
the barriers from the city, and the king rode in.The Lord of all people pressed onward,
the host's glory-gift. The exiles thronged together
each wanting to see the victorious Son:Adam and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
many brave men, Moses and David,
Isaiah and Zachariah,many patriarchs and a great gathering of heroes,
a host of prophets, a throng of women,
many virgins, countless numbers of people.Then John saw the victorious Son of God
coming with royal majesty to hell,
the mourning man perceived the journey of God himself.He saw the doors of hell brightly shining
which had been locked long ago,
shrouded in darkness. The thegn was full of joy
Our friend Fr. Drew Royals gave us a little reflection this morning in our patrons Signal group:
What’s going on right now is a marvellous contrast with today’s unique and unusual silence.
He’s springing souls left & right down there, he’s stomping down doors, binding up demons, sufficiently wrecking the place as to have the devil know definitively and forever who’s boss. And we’re up here like, “Gosh, it’s quiet today.”
His divine action brings our human helplessness into sharp relief.
He acts, he’s been acting this whole time. We neglect him, we each go our own way, we deny, betray and put him to death only then to recede to our quiet place. And he still acts, destroying death and sparing us.
I love that the plan was “I’ll see you guys in Galilee on the third day.”
And they’ve locked themselves in a room in Jerusalem.
God is acting, he’s been acting this whole time. If today seems too quiet, perhaps we’re the ones who’ve gone to sleep.
God bless…
I love the story of the Harrowing of Hell ever since I encountered it years ago. Can you imagine?! What a jail break!
On a side note, the medieval writers would have been familiar with the term 'harrowing' as it is an agricultural practice still in use today. To 'harrow' a field is to drag (essentially) a giant rake over it, which turns over/loosens the stones and smooths out the ruts that might cause problems in the planting, and pulls out or loosens the weeds. One might even go so far as to say a harrow sifts the soil and brings the things not supposed to be there to the surface. It's kind of a violent process all things considered. So to think of Christ harrowing Hell -- He is down there violently sifting it, shaking loose the foundation stones, and bringing out all the souls not supposed to be there. ❤️
"He saw the doors of hell brightly shining
which had been locked long ago,
shrouded in darkness. The **thegn** was full of joy"
Exactly what is a "thegn" ?