scenes from Holy Week: Monday

The seven days after Palm Sunday leading to Easter are sometimes called “Holy Week,” and each day presents scene or episodes that I think over and contemplate and I would like to invite readers to do that with me. 

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Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Today, Holy Monday, coincides with a penumbral lunar eclipse as well as the Feast of Annunciation. I will say a few words about each of these things, in turn, beginning with the latter.

The Feast of Annunciation, also known as the Feast of the Incarnation (Festum Incarnationis), or Conceptio Christi (“Christ’s Conception”) is a commemoration of the moment of the Archangel Gabriel’s revelation to Mary that she would bear the Son of God into the the world:

Et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit: Ave gratia plena: Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus.

as the Latin Vulgate translation of the Gospel According to Luke recounts the scene. The Archangel’s salutation as recorded in the Gospel was, of course, elaborated into the famous Latin prayer to the Virgin, Ave Maria, which was later adapted to the melody of Franz Schubert’s Ellens dritter Gesang.¹

“Annunciation” (c. 1472–1475), Uffizi, is thought to be Leonardo da Vinci's earliest complete work

At the conclusion of Sunday’s contemplation, I posed the question of how we can become the “good earth” in which the seeds of the Upper World can take root “and bringeth forth much fruit,” and the answer, as proposed in the referenced piece on “the Parable of the Sower,” is summed up in Mary’s response to the emissary of the Most High, as the Gospel recounts it:

fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

which is, being interpreted, “be it done to me according to thy word,”² and later,

Maria autem conservabat omnia verba haec, conferens in corde suo

which is, again, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”³ In this case, the word rendered in English as “pondered” is συμβάλλουσα (symballousa), which is, literally, “symbolized.” Symbolos stems from the Greek sym- + ballein. Together, these elements mean something like “cast together,” since ballein means “to cast” or “to throw.” Compare, for instance, to the term “ballistic,” or to the term “diabolic,” or diabolos, which is, being literally interpreted, “to cast asunder.” As Jesus was conceived in Mary, so the Word can be “sown” in the soul of the ones who are willing to receive these words and images and “cast them together in our hearts” in the example Mary set for us.

Saint Gregory the Theologian expounds on this stance:

Understand first of all yourself. Begin by understanding well what is at your disposal: who you are, how you were fashioned, and how you were composed so as to be the image of God, and to be linked to what is inferior; who it was that set you in motion; what is the wisdom which is manifested in you, and what is the mystery of your nature; how it is that you are measured in a place, and yet your spirit is not trapped within boundaries, but, staying in one place, traverses all things; how the eye, which is so small, grasps so much, whether by admitting into itself, as it were, the perceived object, or by passing into this object; how the same being, thanks to the impulse of will, is both the principle of movement and the end of movement; moreover, what is movement’s cessation, what is the differentiation of the senses, and how does the spirit, by them, enter into contact with what is without and receive exterior things; how does the spirit perceive forms, and what is this ability to retain that which it has received (that is to say, the memory); what is the power of finding again what is gone (that is, recollection); how does a word, produced by one mind, beget a word in another mind, and how does a word communicate thought; how is the body nourished by the soul, while, by means of the body, the soul participates in the passions; how does fear stiffen, courage expand, anger tighten, and pleasure relax, envy consume, pride puff up, and hope make light; how does anger cause fury, and shame blushing, by means of the blood which in the one case boils and in the other case flows away; how do the passions imprint their marks upon the body; what preeminence is exercised by reason, and how does it direct everything and calm the movements of the passions; how do blood and breath hold sway over what is incorporeal, and how does the defection of these elements cause the soul to depart? Begin, O man, by understanding these things, or at least a part of them. And this is to say nothing about nature, the movements of the heavens, the order of stars, the co-mixture of the elements, the diversity of living things, the higher and the lower celestial powers, all that, in short, upon which the creating Word diversifies his activity, and the reasons for providence and for the world’s governance. And even then, I do not say, Be bold; but still, beware of letting yourself approach what is highest and surpasses your powers.⁴

As the Moon receives the light of the Sun, so the Soul can receive the light of the Spirit if the former is in a good way with itself and with its Lord.

As most readers will know, the monthly lunation cycle is constituted by the relative positions the Sun, Moon, and Earth assume in respect to one another over the course of 28 to 29 days. A New Moon is another designation for a Sun-Moon conjunction just as “Phosphorus” is another name for “Venus in her aspect as the Morning Star.” Similarly, a Full Moon represents the opposition of the relevant luminaries and therefore the total illumination of the Moon by the Sun from the perspective of the Earth. By this logic, it will be clear that a perfect threefold alignment of these planets can result in one or another of them occulting the Sun, either in its incident or reflected light. In the first instance, when the New Moon alignment is perfect, the result will be a Solar Eclipse, and in the second, when the Earth interposes itself between the Sun and the Moon, the result will be a Lunar one. Last night, or, in the wee hours of the morning today, Monday, which is, “the Day of the Moon,” we experienced a penumbral Lunar Eclipse, which resulted from the Earth overshadowing the Moon to a substantial extent. For those of little faith, the event may have incited no small amount of dread, but for those with eyes to see, it prefigured the power by which the angel rolled back the stone from the tomb on the morning of the Resurrection.⁵

Monday

• planet: Moon

• quality: reflection

• color: violet

• vowel: ai

• organ: brain, womb

• metal: silver

• tree: cherry

One final image to contemplate from Scripture for this day is the scene in which Jesus weeps over the Holy City, recounted in Luke 19:

41And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

1. composed in 1825 as part of his Op. 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott’s 1810 popular narrative poem “The Lady of the Lake,” loosely translated into German.

Latin Catholic prayer

Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Maria, gratia plena,
Maria, gratia plena,
Ave, Ave, Dominus,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus,
Et benedictus fructus ventris (tui),
Ventris tui, Jesus.
Ave Maria!

2. Luke 1:38

3. Luke 2:19

4. St. Gregory the Theologian’s oration On moderation in debates (often referred to by the Latin title, De moderatione in disputando), №27.

5. Matthew 28:2