We have all at times felt a frightening sensation of abandonment, and that which makes us most afraid of death is precisely this [abandonment]; just as when, as children, we were afraid to be alone in the dark and only the presence of a person who loves us could reassure us. So, it is exactly this that happened on Holy Saturday: in the empire of the dead there resounded the voice of God. The unthinkable happened: that Love penetrated “into hell” (negli inferi); that in the most extreme darkness of the most absolute human solitude we can hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes us and leads us out. The human being lives by the fact that he[/she] is loved and can love; and if Love even has penetrated into the realm of death, then Life has also arrived there. In the hour of extreme solitude we will never be alone.
– Pope Benedict XVI (2010)
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Passion of Christ (Part 10) – Jesus Among the Dead
• Within the Mystery, a Strange and Empty State of Suspension
• When Love Entered Hell
Related Off-site Link:
Holy Saturday: From All I Am to All I Have Not Yet Become – Bondings 2.0 (March 26, 2016).
Images: Michael O'Brien. In commenting on the second image, O'Brien says: "In dying we are born to eternal life. Before the final death of our bodies, there are countless smaller 'deaths' that teach us, form us, prepare us. Part of our human nature welcomes this, part resists it. But we are assisted in this birth with help from above."
No comments:
Post a Comment