Good Friday in West Virginia

 It's Good Friday in West Virginia. On the day that the suffering and death of Jesus are commemorated, the state legislature is planning cutting taxes on the richest residents and/or raising them to the poorer or slashing the programs and services they need. And proposing a budget that cuts higher education, recovery programs, public broadcasting and all kinds of stuff.

This would be the day after a house of delegates committee voted to support drug testing for TANF residents--because apparently it's fun to impose rituals of degradation on poor people--and gutted harm reduction programs in a state devastated by the opioid epidemic.

All this is after taking millions away from public schools to support the privatization of education, increasing penalties and punishment, slamming transgender youth, supporting resolutions to rewrite the US constitution (what could possibly go wrong?) and other ill stuff I can't even remember at this point.

Tomorrow, Holy Saturday, commemorates the story of Jesus' descent into hell to free captive spirits. In WV, the hell part applies, but I don't see a lot of liberation going on here. Sunday celebrates Easter, but I don't see a resurrection for this state coming any time soon.

On the other hand, it seems that miraculous resurrections, if and when they happen, aren't predictable. I guess I'll hold onto that.

Holy Saturday and the Harrowing of Hell

This was originally posted here in 2013, with a few updates:

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is an interesting part of the traditional Christian calendar. It symbolized the only day of the year in which Christ is thought of as being dead. By tradition, it is also the only day of the year in which the Holy Eucharist is not celebrated (except in cases of emergencies).

In Christian tradition, lots of interesting legends developed around this day. Some passages in the New Testament suggest that Jesus descended to the realms of the dead to bring liberation to captive spirits. Apocryphal gospels from the second and third centuries elaborated this theme. In the late classical and medieval period, legends bloomed about the "Harrowing of Hell" in which the spirit of Jesus trashed the place while freeing the souls of the virtuous. In Dante's Inferno, both the architecture and geography of Hell show the aftershocks of that cataclysmic event nearly 1300 years later.

I love the image of captive spirits who have long ago given up hope being suddenly and unexpectedly rescued by a power far greater than themselves or the forces that hold them down. We could use a good bit more of that.

Right now.

Holy Saturday, or the Harrowing of Hell

This is reposted from 2013, with a few updates:

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is an interesting part of the traditional Christian calendar. It symbolized the only day of the year in which Christ is thought of as being dead. By tradition, it is also the only day of the year in which the Holy Eucharist is not celebrated (except in cases of emergencies).

In Christian tradition, lots of interesting legends developed around this day. Some passages in the New Testament suggest that Jesus descended to the realms of the dead to bring liberation to captive spirits. Apocryphal gospels from the second and third centuries elaborated this theme. In the late classical and medieval period, legends bloomed about the "Harrowing of Hell" in which the spirit of Jesus trashed the place while freeing the souls of the virtuous. In Dante's Inferno, both the architecture and geography of Hell show the aftershocks of that cataclysmic event nearly 1300 years later.

I love the image of captive spirits who have long ago given up hope being suddenly and unexpectedly rescued by a power far greater than themselves or the forces that hold them down. We could use a good bit more of that.

Right now.

The Harrowing of Hell

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is an interesting part of the traditional Christian calendar. It symbolized the only day of the year in which Christ is thought of as being dead. By tradition, it is also the only day of the year in which the Holy Eucharist is not celebrated (except in cases of emergencies).

In Christian tradition, lots of interesting legends developed around this day. Some passages in the New Testament suggest that Jesus descended to the realms of the dead to bring liberation to captive spirits. Apocryphal gospels from the second and third centuries elaborated this theme. In the late classical and medieval period, legends bloomed about the "Harrowing of Hell" in which the spirit of Jesus trashed the place while freeing the souls of the virtuous. In Dante's Inferno, both the architecture and geography of Hell show the aftershocks of that cataclysmic event nearly 1300 years later.

I love the image of captive spirits who have long ago given up hope being suddenly and unexpectedly rescued by a power far greater than themselves or the forces that hold them down. We could use a good bit more of that.

A must read for Easter Weekend: "Atlas Shrugged, Jesus didn't"

Here's a great post by Isaiah Poole that is especially timely as Ayn Rand disciples and extremists in Congress prepare to pull the plug on the middle class, the poor, and the elderly.

Biblical Zen

The Bible has got way more than its share of zingers. Jesus himself was the master of the one liner. But one of my favorites is from Luke's version of the Easter event.

When two women approach the tomb, they encounter two men in shining garments,who ask them "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"

I love that line. It wouldn't make a bad Zen koan.

Now El Cabrero has no idea what happened in those first days after the crucifixion or whether you could have filmed it with a video camera. But I love the idea that the sacred is living, fluid, mobile, elusive, not defined or contained.

People want to turn it into something defined, legalistic, cut and dry. Dead in other words.

The question remains.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: SUSPENDED