paschal moon: christ our passover is sacrificed

through the pine trees, i watched the paschal moon rise last night. it was a very poignant time. i kept thinking about jesus' last week before his crucifixion, with the moon becoming full over the mount of olives, the moon which is the lesser light, to rule the night, flooding jerusalem across the valley with it's pale light, the jerusalem that killed the prophets. i could not but think of the line in john's gospel (13:20), when judas iscariot had just gone out: "it was night."

for the past few years my lenten discipline has included a "word," as the desert fathers would say, a "koan" was our buddhist brothers and sisters say. my friend michael carroccino reminded me that i had put my musings on line in the past, and that he had found them helpful. i have not mentioned them so far this year, because another part of my discipline has been to try to blather less. but now that lent is turning into easter, it's time to consider some of my discoveries.

my word for the season has been from genesis:

"and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (2:8-9)

it is one of the most commented-upon pieces of writing in all the world. over the next few days i will share some of them. but for now i want to remark that almost all of the writers, from the first to the twentieth centuries, agree that eventually, the man would be granted the food of the tree of life. but, he should wait until the time was full. there is a bit of reflection of this in the collect for palm sunday:

"almighty and everliving god, who, of thy tender love
towards mankind, hast sent thy son our savior jesus christ
to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the
cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his
great humility: mercifully grant that we may both follow the
example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his
resurrection; through the same jesus christ our lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy spirit, one god,
for ever and ever. amen."

"grant that we . . . may follow the example of his patience . . ."

within that context, the idea that now, at the full mooon, jesus' hour had come, becomes even more important. and it is not just our lord's hour, but the hour of the whole world. it is the hour, as s. matthew's gospel calls it, of the regeneration (19:28). there is a haunting scene in the movie, "the passion of the christ," in which jesus, carrying his cross, our tree of life, falls; mary his mother meets him, and he says to her, "look, mother. i am making all things new."
allthough we sometimes forget it, that is what we are remembering this week.