Through the tomb. A Holy Friday meditation.
What if the tomb is also the womb?
Welcome, dear fellow pilgrim,
It is grey outside on this Good Friday. The rain has poured from heaven since the Triduum started yesterday night. The storms are gone, but the rain still looms in the heaven. Under the grey morning dew young green breaks through. And we are on the way to Easter, dear people, through the tomb.
“Jesus is risen,” our six year old comes running into my office ready for school. She plays Jesus and gives me a bear hug. I am consoled by her Good Friday interpretation. “Now come, and have breakfast with me,” she commands, “you are my disciple.” And so we play for a while, light hearted, singing, deeply moving play.
And now, dear one, comes my Good Friday meditation for your heart. I built it like stations of the cross, so you can take it in your own pace and time. It ends with the incredible consoling message on “revolutionary love” by Valerie Kaur: “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?”
#1 The fire will not consume you
It was a breath taking experience to watch the stream of fire in the kiln at St John’s Abbey, MN. The kiln is as big as a barn and is fired for 10 days around the clock by shifts of volunteers.
The atmosphere is like being close to the elements,
fire and earth, radiant warmth.
A fire too hot to approach creates the most beautiful vessels which have taken weeks of preparation to carefully stack them in the kiln.
One feels like watching creation at its core.
After the 10 days of firing the openings are sealed shut and the kiln left to bake for another 10 days or so. For me the entire experience was like witnessing Christmas and Easter all at once. The kiln, like the eternal womb, creating new beauty --
and also, like the tomb, closed up until renewed life can emerge.
You might have wondered these days if you walk towards the womb or the tomb.
Indeed, the good news about Good Friday is, that the tomb becomes the womb from which new life springs.
So fear not, dear fellow pilgrim, fear not.
Even when we walk through the fire, the fire will not consume us.
#2 A king who dies
“A king who
dies on the cross
must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.
Only those who understand the profound paradox
of the cross
can also understand
the whole meaning
of Jesus’ assertion:
my kingdom is not
of this world. “
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#3 For Love gives herself
Listen to the angelic aria of “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben…” / “Out of love my savior gives his life…”
JS Bach - Aus Liebe from St Matthew Passion BWV 244 | Netherlands Bach Society.
Aus Liebe - Out of Love,
JS Bach, the master of repetitive movement lets the soprano sing again and again.
Follow the tune of the flute and the voice of the soprano.
Listen with the ears of your heart.
Ponder the text with the eyes of your heart.
Begin by simply listening to the flute.
It will move your heart to the place it needs to be today.
Not a place of tradition or theology or oughts. Just an intimate encounter with your self,
and the awe and mystery of the Triduum.
#4
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
#5 Holding Mystery
“The Christ Mystery anoints all physical matter with eternal purpose from the very beginning. (…) All of us take part in the evolving, universe-spanning Christ Mystery. … Christ is the blueprint for all time and space and life itself. Both reveal the universal pattern of self-emptying and infilling (Christ) and death and resurrection (Jesus), which is the process humans have called “holiness,” “salvation,” or “growth.”
*Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe(Convergent Books: 2019), 5, 20-21.
#6.
What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb,
but the darkness of the womb?
I only came across Valarie Kaur and her “revolutionary love” project this recently. Somehow, a social media algorithm fed me her powerful address to America. Her melodic question of whether the darkness we witness is not just the darkness of the tomb, but also the womb, deeply resonated with me. Her whole attitude, her poetic wording, reminded me of Amanda Gorman’s poem at Biden’s inauguration.
So let me end this Holy Friday letter to you with a consolation which speaks into our times that borrows from Valarie Kaur’s powerful words:
Breathe and push
So the mother in me asks what if?
What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb,
but the darkness of the womb?
What if our America is not dying
but a country waiting to be born?
What if the story of America is one long labor?
What if all of our grandfathers and grandmothers are standing behind us now,
those who survived occupation and genocide, slavery and Jim Crow, detentions and political assault?
What if they are whispering in our ears “You are brave”?What if this is our nation’s greatest transition?
What does the midwife tell us?
Breathe.
And then?
Push.Because if we don’t push we will die. If we don’t push our nation will die.
Tonight we will breathe.
Tomorrow we will labor
in love through love and your revolutionary love
is the magic we will show our children.— Valarie Kaur
#7
Thank you for being here with us, thank you for walking with us through this Passion Week.
If you have been moved by this letter feel free to forward it to a friend, also.
May love eternal fill us anew, Almut
PS: If you can, leave a sorrow, a line or a word which resonated with you today.
This is the sixth of our Passion Week Consolations 2025. You can find all previous Consolations here. If you have been forwarded this email and wish to receive our daily consolations in your inbox you can still sign up choosing the paid tier and walk with us towards the Easter light. On holy Saturday I will lead you into a private retreat using this week’s consolations.
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