Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 6

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, 0 Israel!

Its words are based on the seventh of the Great Antiphons of Advent, in which the ancient types are repeatedly presented.

O Adonai, and Leader of the House of Israel, who appeared in the bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gave him the Law upon Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.l

O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign for the people, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, unto whom the Nations shall seek: Come and deliver us, and tarry not.2

O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel; that opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens: Come, and bring the captives out of prison, those that sit in darkness and in the shadow ofdeath s

O King of Nations, and their Desire; the Corner, stone, who makest both one: Come and save mankind, whom thou halt formed of clay.4

Vesper antiphon for December 18th.

2 December 19th. The root, stem, rod, or verge of Jesse, the father of David, whose flowering is the birth of Christ, is another form of the Tree of Life, and is a.s.sociated wrath the Virgin Mary whose family tree is traced back to Jesse.

8 December zath. The Key of David is the type of the "keys of the kingdom" later entrusted to St. Peter, who, as supreme representative of the priestly office, is charged with the binding and loosing of souls, with giving and withholding absolution from sin.

4 December zand. The "Cornerstone, who makest both one" is a particularly Because the final reference of the "once upon a time" of the myth is to that "time behind time" encountered in the depths of our consciousness, there is a particular significance to the Advent theme of "captive Israel". Its understanding is the necessary introduction to the miraculous Coming of Christ, whether we are considering the First Advent from the Virgin's womb or the Second Advent "in the clouds of heaven". A proverb says that "man's extremity is G.o.d's opportunity", suggesting that the necessary condition for a miracle is a state of impa.s.se which only a miracle can solve. The Coming of Christ is a.s.sociated with a number of striking symbols of the inv possible: the rod blossoms, the virgin bears a son, and he "whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain" is found within the womb.

Wonder beyond time's wonders-Eternity shut in a span, Summer in winter, Day in night, Heaven on earth, And G.o.d in man.

In short, the Coming of Christ is out of all continuity with anything that happened before. It is a complete reversal of the order of cause and effect, of the determination of the present by the past, since he comes to birth out of all relation with the continuity of human generation-having no father.

For the redemption of captive Israel, liberation from Hades, the forgiveness of sins, release from the selflove of Lucifer, from the "Old Adam", and from the bondage of "Egypt" and interesting symbol of the divine as the "reconciling principle" in which the "pairs of opposites" are transcended. The symbol is widespread, and is found in China as the tai eh?, the Great Ultimate-literally, the Great Ridgepole-underlying and uniting yang and yin, the positive and negative principles. See A. K. Coomaraswamy's article "Eckstein", in Speculum, vol. xiv (1939), pp. 66--~2.

98 Myth and Ritual in Christianity Babylon is in every respect a deliverance from the past. Salvation is always the ending of the mind's fascinated identi. fication with the dead and unchanging image of what it was. It is a complete reversal of the natural" order of things, a mrtanoia--the Greek word for "repentance meaning precisely a "turningaroundeofthetnind, so that it no longer faces into the past, the land of the shadow of death, but into the Eternal Present.

So long as the mind is captivated by memory, and really feels itself to be that past image-which is I-it can do nothing to save itself; its sacrifices are of no avail, and its Law gives no life. For it is under the spell of death, identified with an impotent abstraction so that, in the language of symbolism, it is "formed of clay", or wandering in the wilderness, in "a dry and barren land where no water is". And under this spell it remains, hopelessly and helplessly captive, just so long as this dead image continues to give any illusion of life, so long as one thinks or feels that "I" is able to do anything in the way of a creative act. Therefore the necessary condition for the miracle is the realization that this "I" can do nothing-the discovery of its total and inescapable captivity. The "I" must confess that it is mere dust, that "there is no health in it", for liberation from the "I" is impossible so long as one retains any hope in its powers. While this hope persists one is still under the spell of death, turned into a pillar of salt like Lots wife who looked behind on the way from Sodom.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day . . . he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his soul shall lose it.'

x Luke 17: 333. "The day when the Son of Man is revealed" is, of course, the Last Day, the day when time comes to an end-as indeed it does eternally in this Now, wherein one we are truly alive.

Advent 99 Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.l

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of G.o.d.2

On the other hand, the miracle can come to pa.s.s if all hope in the "I" is abandoned, if that wherein man thought his life consisted is seen beyond any doubt to be unreality and death. The one thing, then, which is the indispensable preparation for the miracle of man's becoming "no longer I, but Christ", for the birth of G.o.dhead in man, is the confession of "sin"-not, however, in the current sentimental sense of the word, but in the true metaphysical sense of hamartanein, "to miss the mark", to be off the point. The mark or point here---equivalent to the "strait and narrow gate" or the "needle's eye" which is the entrance to heaven-is the timeless, eternal moment wherein our real life consists.3 To be "off the mark" is to be identified with the past, and thus "the soul that sinneth shall die". Repentance in "dust and ashes" is simply the clear admission that everything which I know (remember) as myself is dead, and can do nothing. The "I" which is the past can give no salvation from the past.

1 Matthew 8: 22, and Luke r r: 60.

2 Luke rr: 62. These, and many other pa.s.sages, suggest quite clearly that eternal life consists in deliverance from the past, and thus from time in general, the whole notion of time being built upon our memory of the past. Cf. Matthew 6: 34, "Be not anxious for the morrow", and in Luke 24: 5-6, the words of the angels to those who sought the body of Christ in the sepulchre-"Why seek ye the living among the death He is not here, but is risen."

8 The "point" is the bindu of the Hindu tradition, or the ekaksana, the "one moment", of the Buddhist, which is the same as Dante's punto a ari tutti Ii tempi son presenti, "point at which the whole of time is present", in Paradiso, xvii. 17-1 8. Cf. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 77: "The principle of knowledge, that is conceptual, pure and simple, flashes through the soul like lightning, and offers itself in a single moment's experience to apprehension and vision." So, also, St. Paul in t Corinthians 15: 51-5a, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."

too Myth and Ritual in Christianity For this reason, then, Advent gives a special emphasis to the mission of St. John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our G.o.d.'

For immediately before the public appearance of Christ there came the desertprophet John, the son of a barren woman, Elizabeth, "preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin". The imagery of Advent achieves a marvelous combination of spiritual and seasonal themes, the arid ground of the desert waiting for the winter rains corresponding to St. John's baptism in the wilderness, to the coming of the Dayispring from on high to "those that sit in darkness", and to the miracle of discontinuity-the blossoming rod-which is to liberate man from the arid past and revive him with the water of eternal life.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain justice; let the earth be opened and bud forth a Saviour.2

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be

glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing... .

For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.3 Isaiah 4a 3, quoted in John r: 19 et seq., which is the liturgical Gospel for the Third Sunday in Advent.

2 Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, based on Isaiah 45: 8.

3 Lesson for Ember Sat.u.r.day in Advent, from Isaiah 35: 1-7.

Advent lot FIG. 4 GLORIFIED MADONNA.

A Spanish woodcut of the late 15th century, from the Biblioteca Universitaria,

Valencia. The Virgin is surrounded with roses; the Christ child holds a rose;

and the kneeling figures of the two imperia, spiritual and temporal, hold rosaries,

as do the two monks above. The symbolism is of the Virgin as Rosa Mundi,

Rose of the World--that is, of the created order, maya, which Rowers from its

divine Centre.

Yet the rain must have a way to enter into the dry ground. The earth must be opened. To "make straight in the desert a high, way for our G.o.d in conformity with St. John's cry for repentance, the ground must no longer remain closed. The whole mystery of the opening of the earth, which, from the metaphysical standpoint, is the "pa.s.sive admission that "I can do nothing, is contained in the all important figure of the Virgin Mary, upon whom the mind of the Church fastens more and more as Advent draws to its close.

U Virgin of Virgins, how shall this be? For neither before thee was any seen like thee, nor shall there be after. Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me? The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.'

In Christian mythology the figure of the Mother of G.o.d is second only in importance to that of Christ himself, and at times popular devotion has seemed to want to raise her to an even higher eminence. From every standpoint-theological, historical, or metaphysical-her role in the Christian scheme is crucial, because she is that without which there would be no Christ. Her consent-Be it unto me according to thy word-was the necessary condition of the Incarnation, and thus she is the vital bridge between death and life, sin and holiness--the mediatrix of all graces, by whose openness to the Spirit the miracle of redemption could be achieved. Rather obviously, she takes the place of Isis, Astarte, Ceres, Aphrodite, Cybele, manna, MayaShakti, and all the great Mother G.o.ddesses of the Earth known to ancient history, for Catholic piety has endowed her with their t.i.tles-Mother of G.o.d and Queen of Heaven.

Ave, Regina caeloruni, Ave, Domina Angelorum: Salve radix, salve porta, Ex qua mundo lux est orta.

Hail, Queen of Heaven!