Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Pleading For Us at the Right Hand of the Father

I prayed the Rosary tonight during Eucharistic Adoration, before Mass.  As I meditated on the Second Glorious Mystery, The Ascension, I gazed at the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  His right hand reaches out toward the congregation, beckoning us, with the wound  from the nail clearly visible.

Jesus' glorified body could have been perfect, just as His human body was "without blemish."  Yet He chose to retain the five wounds of His Passion-- two on His hands, two on His feet and the wound in His side from the soldier's spear. 

I could not explain why any more eloquently than Caryll Houselander, in her lovely book, The Essential Rosary:

Christ,
  ascended into Heaven,
You bear the wounds
  of the whole world
  in Your hands and feet
  and in Your heart.
They plead for us,
 shining like stars
 before the secret face of God.
By Your five wounds
  purify our five senses;
  lift up our hearts into Heaven.
While You draw down
God's mercy to us,
  showing our wounds
  in Your glorified Body,
let us draw men up to You,
  showing Your wounds to the world,
    scored on our grey dust
      in the bright crimson
        of Your love.

~ Caryll Houselander

4 comments:

Kathleen's Catholic said...

Peggy, this is beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing your contemplation. I never thought of these things in this way--just beautiful.

Peggy Bowes said...

Thank you Kathleen! I find that the more I pray the Rosary and study and meditate on the mysteries, the more often these revelations come to me. It all just came together last night-- the poem I've always loved, the statue, praying right in front of Our Lord on the altar and the deacon saying, "... pleading for us at the right hand of the Father..." during Mass.

I also have to add that there are *many* times that I pray the Rosary and don't experience any revelations at all. I simply look at such divinely-inspired moments as little gifts to keep me going.

Anonymous said...

Interesting, but Jesus would not have had wounds on his hands. During crucifixtion, they put the nails through the wrists. Otherwise, the hands would just tear and the person would fall off the cross.

Peggy Bowes said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment, Anonymous. You are right of course, and I know that the nails would have gone through the wrist, but I just used a more traditional image here as usually represented in art. Apparently the Arabic word for "hand" includes the wrist area. Interestingly, the Shroud of Turin shows wounds in the wrist not the hands.