Tess Ward

I have always been fascinated by Holy Saturday – the only day over Easter that has no gathering. Where did Jesus go? It has been traditionally thought of as the harrowing of hell ie when Jesus went to where God wasn’t and brought all the people home. I still find this moving and when I used to attend the Easter vigil at dawn on Sunday – used to love the fire outside the church, plunging the candle in the water and the beautiful Easter exsultet accompanied by the first light and the birds. Being me I’d tweak the liturgy not a little but a lot and still fancy doing that one of these days…….

Descent into Limbo – Mantegna

So I went to my book and reminded myself of the Exsultet. It was written 5-7C.

This is the night,

when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

Of this night scripture says:

“The night will be as clear as day:

it will become my light, my joy.”

The power of this holy night dispels all evil,

washes guilt away, restores lost innocence,

brings mourners joy;

it casts out hatred, brings us peace,

and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed,

when heaven is wedded to earth

and we are reconciled to God!

This reminded me of a song I’m ashamed to say, as a Waterboys fan, I’ve only just heard for the first time

Bring ‘em all in, bring’em all in, bring ‘em all in,
bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all into my heart
Bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in
bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all into my heart

Bring the little fishes
bring the sharks
bring ‘em from the brightness
bring ‘em from the dark

Bring ‘em from the caverns
bring ‘em from the heights
bring ‘em from the shadows
stand ‘em in the light

Bring ‘em out of purdah
bring ‘em out of store
bring ‘em out of hiding
lay them at my door

Bring the unforgiven
bring the unredeemed
bring the lost, the nameless
let ‘em all be seen
bring ‘em out of exile
bring ‘em out of sleep
bring ‘em to the portal
lay them at my feet

Bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in,
bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all into my heart
Bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all in
bring ‘em all in,bring ‘em all in to my heart

And of course, he borrowed that from the master. I’m not going to print it all out but here is the last verse of one of Dylan’s masterpieces:

Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught

Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended

As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look

Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended

Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed

For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse

An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe

An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

from the divine Chimes of Freedom

There’s too many boys in this post (all of whom I love!) so out of respect for Mary Magdalene and all the other women who got there first, I’ll end with Julian.

Then his face, full of joy, our Lord looked into his wounded side. He led me into his wound and showed me a lovely place, large enough for all humanity to rest in peace and love. For my own deeper understanding, I heard the words “See how I love you”.

Tess Ward

Celebrant and writer

Home

Recent Posts

Bring em all in – Easter musings

Recent Posts

Share this: