Easter Contemplations
When I think about Easter this year, this painting comes to my mind The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels. Giovanni Bellini, 15 cent.
We see a dead body of Christ, it sounds like the silence of death and darkness. His dead body is carefully supported by two angels. One of them looks up as if looking at God Who is in Heaven and the other one looks at God, Who is standing with the spectator. The eyes of the angels voice the same question: "God, have you seen this? Do you see that He is dead now? What was it all about? ”
This picture reminds me so much of the photos we saw from the exhumation of murdered people in Bucha (of course not only Bucha)
Tortured families, shot cars with children, raped women… HAVE YOU SEEN THIS, LORD?
I understand that all the words are superfluous: "everything will be fine" – some of us will never be fine, because their children will come only in their dreams, "everything will be even better" – it will never be better for many of us", we will rebuild everything even better ”- we will, but not everything, because the lives of whole families cannot be rebuilt…
Today, as if in the silence of Saturday, in the silence of lifting bodies from mass graves, in the silence when tears are over, Ukraine is left with only the glaring eyes of millions, which remind these angels: "Lord, have you seen this?"
Perhaps this year many of us do not feel the usual Easter joy, but the Easter story is so comprehensive, it is not only about the divine and supernatural, but it is also so much about human life, so it can speak to us under any circumstances. It feels like Christ is not yet risen, we carry dead bodies in silence. In this state, it is important for me to see how tenderly the angels support the dead body, carefully going to lay it down, the artist seems to show us that when Christ is not risen yet, when there is only his dead body in the hands - keep doing simple deeds of humanity, do not renounce its usual actions - to carry smb carefully, to pay last respects, to remember, to support… Continuing to do the deeds of humanity, we retain the divine image, probably it's the reason why the artist uses angels and not real people who did it for Christ: Joseph and Nicodemus.
I remember the myrrh-bearing women who were weeping, for we are weeping, too. We are also mourning those who were buried in their backyards and gardens. They wanted to complete the rite that they could not perform in time - to anoint the body of their Lord. Every Easter stage must be lived through, today we are in mourning, but I believe that one day we will hear from the Risen One: “Do not weep! Go and say that I am Alive ", so the last word doesn’t belong to death, but to Life! So everything that happened to our tortured brothers and sisters is not the last thing that happened to their bodies! The Easter message gives us strength and meaning for humanity, gives us courage to carry and support others, because we believe that the most important Victory has already been won by Christ - the victory of life over death, the victory of light over darkness. The Dawn is breaking through!
He is Risen!
Olena Tovyanska