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Walk With Me: Resurrection

We have reached the middle of Holy Week, The efforts and failures of Lent are behind us. The entry into Jerusalem has taken place and the buzz of Passover is present in the city. Now the Triduum is upon us, the Thursday, Friday and Saturday that mark the culmination of the Lord's presence among us.

It is the third Easter that Francis has been Bishop of Rome and still he continues to surprise us. But really we shouldn't be surprised, for his simple, caring faith is the very essence of Christian belief and he has sought to be an example to the Church that has often showed opulence in its bearing and disregard for the poor. His washing of the feet only days after his election set the tone and is continued in his demonstration of service to others in the work of the Lord.

In the last few days, there has been an extraordinary event in England, the burial of a King, some 530 years after his death in the battle of Bosworth Field, near Leicester. The bones of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England were found and identified nearly three years ago. Last Thursday his remains were interred in Leicester Cathedral, a final resting place in a Church of England cathedral for a Catholic king.

The short piece below was written on the day his remains were taken to the Cathedral.

 In English Linen*

They drew him through city streets

concealed in an oak box, square-sided,

simple, pulled by four black horses

towards a cathedral resting place.

 

Battle-broken, the distorted bones

of the Plantagenet  king were offered

due reverence, five hundred years

after his wound-disfigured body was

 

tossed roughly into English soil

and a Tudor victor assumed his crown.

The memory of history, a mystery in

a late afternoon in early Spring; final journey.

*Inside an inner lead casket, the bones were laid out and packed  into position with  English wool and linen, covered with an unbleached linen cloth, hand embroidered with his white rose and white boar symbols.

The image at the head of this posting is taking from the Stations, Walk with Me, Published by McCrimmon UK. It is a beautiful, yet simple depiction of the Resurrection meeting with Mary, that first Easter morning, the 15^th station.

The End

Chris McDonnell.