In the parish church, there was a big old crucifix behind the altar, with a writhing and flesh-toned Jesus on it. The large dome of the church was painted with a biblical mural and all those images added to the story of the religion. I have never understood why Catholicism chose to focus on the image of Jesus on the cross, when the promise and wonder of that myth is the resurrection, but anyway ....
In the 70s St. John's started to renovate, to "move with the times", as many other Catholic churches did. They painted over (!) the mural, and they took down the lurid Jesus and leaned him and his crucifix against a back wall of the church.
Dogstar and I went down to see the church one day while we were in Green Bay (I do not recall if we were living there or just visiting at that point). We saw Jesus leaning there, looking dejected. They had put up an empty slim cross in his old place of pride. He seemed forlorn.
We very nearly stole him, dear reader, very nearly. There were a couple of good reasons not to:
1. The POLICE
2. The weight of the cross on our shoulders dragging him off ... and where to?
So we left him there alone. I wonder how he is doing and what he is up to now?
5 comments:
yes, that would have been a heavy cross to bear...hehehehe...
at some other time I had a dream about an old european town with a central plaza and a fountain. It had narrow cobbled streets that led away from the plaza, and upwards. I watched a small man wearing grey wool carrying a cross with Jesus on it up the hill in this grey village.
Jesus was later given a base for his cross to stand upon .... but he had to stay in the vestibule! I saw him there years afterwards and had forgotten it.
As a child, it was heart-wrenching and agonizing, to see Jesus on the cross suffering. It made me feel all twisted-up inside, a feeling that is not emotionally healthy for a child to go through.
As a young adult, I became repulsed by the symbol of the cross, which is how the Romans executed people. How grotesque and morose can you get focusing on his death, with all it's gore. I resented that the focus was on his death instead his life. It seemed to drowned out his message and vision of what we humans could experience of life if we learned and practiced the power of love.
Now my understanding about putting Jesus' execution in the forefront, is that it is about transformation. On the cross he went from being doubtful, "Why has thou forsaken me?" to the ultimate surrender, "Your Will be done." His surrender represents the mastery and art of dying (and living). That, in my mind, was the resurrection. He emerged into the Great Consciousness, that part of all of us that doesn't die.
It is said that Jesus traveled to India in those "lost years". If that is true, then he probably met up with some wisdom yogi's and sages. Maybe he practiced yogic breathing. I know from experience how this can connect one to one's higher self in a wonderful way.
wish you hadn't included me in this story.
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