Poetry: “Ash Wednesday, Part IV” by T. S. Eliot

Today is Ash Wednesday.  Over the years on Ash Wednesday I have highlight a particular part of T. S. Eliot’s poem, “Ash Wednesday.”  So far I have highlighted the first three of the six parts of the poem.  Let me link you to the posts on the first three parts:

Part 1 (Posted on February 22, 2023) here.  

Part II (Posted on February 13, 2013) here.  

Part III (Posted on February 18, 2015) here and again (Posted February 14, 2024) here.  

If Part I can be summarized as an acknowledgement of sin and the turn for repentance, and Part II as the suffering of penance and the request of prayer from a lady of silence, and Part III as a passing through of Purgatory, we come to Part IV. 

 

IV

Who walked between the violet and the violet

Who walked between

The various ranks of varied green

Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,

Talking of trivial things

In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour

Who moved among the others as they walked,

Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

 

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand

In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,

Sovegna vos

 

Here are the years that walk between, bearing

Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring

One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

 

White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.

The new years walk, restoring

Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring

With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem

The time. Redeem

The unread vision in the higher dream

While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

 

The silent sister veiled in white and blue

Between the yews, behind the garden god,

Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

 

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down

Redeem the time, redeem the dream

The token of the word unheard, unspoken

 

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

 

And after this our exile

 

If you want to read the entire poem, you can do so here.  

How can we summarize Part IV?  Is the penitent still undergoing purgation?  Or has he let out of purgation?  In Dante’s Divine Comedy on which this poem uses greatly, when Dante the character passes through the final purgatorial cleansing, he comes to an earthly paradise, the paradise of Adam and Eve.  Is this what Eliot is describing here?  Perhaps.  What the character of the poem is aware of is the color blue, the color of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  What is redeemed here above all is time: “Redeem/The Time.”  That is quite profound actually.  All our sins are committed in time, and therefore time itself has been violated.  Our redemption includes the redemption of the time and place.  The narrator goes on to redeem all in a magnificent vision:

 

,,,Redeem

The unread vision in the higher dream

While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

That is a difficult passage to untangle, but what I think Eliot is getting at is that redemption what was muddied by sin will be transformed into something transcendent.  “Hearse” suggests a death—perhaps the death of his sin or sinful nature—but now driven away by “jeweled unicorns”!  What vision or dream is he referring to?  My guess is that in Part II of his scattered bones and his body being fed upon by a leopard.  That image being drawn away in a gilded hearse by unicorns is a magnificent image of redemption. 

And to conclude the passage Eliot has the Blessed Virgin praying from which a fountain emerges spouting water.  This is a symbol of redemption through baptism. 

 

Sunday Meditation: The Sermon on the Plain, Part Three

We have listened to Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain for two weeks now.  We have one more week of the Sermon, and this week Jesus provides some of the most vivid imagery of the nature of sin: two blind people falling into a pit, pointing to a splinter in other’s eyes while one has a beam of wood in one’s own eye, the tree that bears fruit, and what gets pronounced from the mouth what is in store in the heart.  In a few days we will begin Lent where we are to repent of our sins.  This Sunday, Jesus identifies the sin within all of us.

 

Jesus told his disciples a parable,

“Can a blind person guide a blind person?

Will not both fall into a pit?

No disciple is superior to the teacher;

but when fully trained,

every disciple will be like his teacher.

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,

but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?

How can you say to your brother,

‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’

when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?

You hypocrite!  Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;

then you will see clearly

to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.

 

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,

nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.

For every tree is known by its own fruit.

For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes,

nor do they gather grapes from brambles.

A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,

but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;

for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”

~Lk 6:39-45

First Fr. Geoffrey Plant explains the sermon.  He narrows the themes to three: recovery of sight, hypocrisy, and the bearing of good fruit.

 

I thought the insight of Christ leading the blind as a metaphor for leading those that have sinned as pretty profound.  I had not thought of that.  And this projects to disciples such as us leading others who have not been so blessed.  Or, from a different perspective, being led by those who have great holiness.  We need to be led as much as leading others.

Next Fr. Cajetan Cuddy draws the theological significance out of the passage. Pay close attention of trying to save yourself by pointing out the sins in others.

The bad tree is transformed into the Good Tree which is the cross! 

I’m going to provide a third reflection, and this is the most pastoral.  It comes from Dr. Brant Pitre.

 

What you store in your heart is what will be produced by your mouth!

 

Sunday Meditation: “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.  For every tree is known by its own fruit.”

 

Are you a good tree?  The Hillbilly Thomas have a song, “Good Tree.”

 

The Hillbilly Thomists are a groups of Dominican Friars who came together to form a musical group, first to pass the time but then got so good they started writing and recording their own songs and have now put out four albums I think.  If you are not familiar with the Hillbilly Thomists, you need to look their music up.  I am a big fan.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The End of the World

The final chapter of The Voyage of the DawnTreader (Book 5 of The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis) brings the ship to the end of the world.  In order to awaken the sleeping Lords for which the quest had launched, the ship must reach the end of the world and one passenger cross over to Aslan’s country.  Reepicheap, the brave and noble mouse, volunteers to be that sacrificial person. 

 

The ship goes as far as it can navigate, and Reepicheap, Edmund, Lucy and Eustace embark on a boat to the end.  Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace will only go so far as to reach the portal to cross back from Narnia to Earth, but Reepicheap will cross the end of the world into Aslan’s country.  Caspian had wanted to go, but as King he could not abdicate his throne.  So he stays behind.  This is such a wonderful passage. 

 

He Caspian] cheered up a little later on, but it was a grievous parting on both sides and I will not dwell on it. About two o'clock in the afternoon, well victualled and watered (though they thought they would need neither food nor drink) and with Reepicheep's coracle on board, the boat pulled away from the Dawn Treader to row through the endless carpet of lilies. The Dawn Treader flew all her flags and hung out her shields to honour their departure. Tall and big and homelike she looked from their low position with the lilies all round them. And even before she was out of sight they saw her turn and begin rowing slowly westward. Yet though Lucy shed a few tears she could not feel it as much as you might have expected. The light, the silence, the tingling smell of the Silver Sea, even (in some odd way) the loneliness itself, were too exciting.

 

There was no need to row, for the current drifted them steadily to the east. None of them slept nor ate. All that night and all next day they glided eastward, and when the third day dawned—with a brightness you or I could not bear even if we had dark glasses on—they saw a wonder ahead. It was as if a wall stood up between them and the sky, a greenish-grey, trembling, shimmering wall. Then up came the sun, and at its first rising they saw it through the wall and it turned into wonderful rainbow colours. Then they knew that the wall was really a long, tall wave—a wave endlessly fixed in one place as you may often see at the edge of a waterfall. It seemed to be about thirty feet high, and the current was gliding them swiftly towards it. You might have supposed they would have thought of their danger. They didn't. I don't think anyone could have in their position. For now they saw something not only behind the wave but behind the sun. They could not have seen even the sun if their eyes had not been strengthened by the water of the Last Sea. But now they could look at the rising sun and see it clearly and see things beyond it. What they saw—eastward, beyond the sun—was a range of mountains. It was so high that either they never saw the top of it or they forgot it. None of them remembers seeing any sky in that direction. And the mountains must really have been outside the world. For any mountains even a quarter or a twentieth of that height ought to have had ice and snow on them. But these were warm and green and full of forests and waterfalls however high you looked. And suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, "It would break your heart." "Why," said I, "was it so sad?" "Sad!! No," said Lucy.

 

No one in that boat doubted that they were seeing beyond the End of the World into Aslan's country.

 

At that moment, with a crunch, the boat ran aground. The water was too shallow now even for it. "This," said Reepicheep, "is where I go on alone."

 

They did not even try to stop him, for everything now felt as if it had been fated or had happened before. They helped him to lower his little coracle. Then he took off his sword ("I shall need it no more," he said) and flung it far away across the lilied sea. Where it fell it stood upright with the hilt above the surface. Then he bade them good-bye, trying to be sad for their sakes; but he was quivering with happiness. Lucy, for the first and last time, did what she had always wanted to do, taking him in her arms and caressing him. Then hastily he got into his coracle and took his paddle, and the current caught it and away he went, very black against the lilies. But no lilies grew on the wave; it was a smooth green slope. The coracle went more and more quickly, and beautifully it rushed up the wave's side. For one split second they saw its shape and Reepicheep's on the very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to have seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan's country and is alive there to this day.

 

As the sun rose the sight of those mountains outside the world faded away. The wave remained but there was only blue sky behind it.

Of course this is allegorical.  Aslan is God and Aslan’s country is paradise, located at the farthest east possible.  I was not familiar with the term, “coracle.”  From Wikipedia: “A coracle is a small, rounded, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales, and also in parts of the west of Ireland and also particularly on the River Boyne, and in Scotland, particularly the River Spey.”   Reepicheap rides the wave and just suddenly disappears, almost as if he’s assumed into heaven. 

 

Sunday Meditation: The Sermon on the Plain Continues

Last week we heard the beginning of Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain.  We heard Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  Just as in Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s sermon continues beyond the Beatitudes.  On the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C, we get the rest of the sermon.  As we hear, Jesus continues what some have called “the Great Reversal.” 

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“To you who hear I say,

love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

To the person who strikes you on one cheek,

offer the other one as well,

and from the person who takes your cloak,

do not withhold even your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks of you,

and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

For if you love those who love you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners,

and get back the same amount.

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,

and lend expecting nothing back;

then your reward will be great

and you will be children of the Most High,

for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give, and gifts will be given to you;

a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,

will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure

will in return be measured out to you.”

~Lk 6:27-38

Dr. Brant Pitre explains how this is a radical love.

 

As a pastoral homily, I liked Fr. Patrick Briscoe’s connection with this radical love with the lives of the saints.

 

As I just posted the other day, I think the life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati would be the perfect saint that Fr. Patrick alludes to.  I think his witness really exemplifies this Gospel passage.

 

Sunday Meditation: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

 

I love that quote and it always reminds me of the Shakespeare play where he uses it in the title, Measure for Measure.” 

For the hymn, let’s go with John Michael Talbot’s “The Greatest ‘Tis Love.”

 

Faith Filled Friday: Blessed Pier Giorgio’s Letter to a Friend

This is a letter written almost exactly one hundred years ago from Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati to a friend.  We know that it was written early in the year 1925 since the letter in the opening paragraph refers to the year of Jubilee, and 1925 is the only year Frassati lived that had a Jubilee year.  From the reference to Advent, which seems to have just passed, the letter must have been written early in the year, possibly January or February.  Later this year, Blessed Pier Giorgio will be fully canonized into a saint. 

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was a young man from Turin, Italy who came from a prominent family but spent his spare time and money secretly helping the poor. He was a devout young Catholic, a mining engineer, a Lay Dominican, a social activist, a jokester, a mountain climber, a pipe and cigar smoker, and a friend to all.  He died at the tender age of 24, but after his death his life of charity became public, even surprising his parents.  He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1990 and is slated to be canonized this summer by Pope Francis.  There is a website devoted to his memory where you can find a lot more information about his wonderful life.  

 

As a Lay Dominican I hold a special bond with Blessed Pier Giorgio.  Not only was he a Lay Dominican, but also like me he was an engineering student and a person who studied literature and theology.  We have a lot in common.  You will see references to all that in this excerpt of one of his letters, a letter to a friend.  Another thing you could notice in the letter is how affectionate a friend he was.  He starts the letter with some reference to a possible bit of friction with the friend, all of which seems nothing to him. 

 

Dearest friend, no ill feelings, as they are not worthy of the Holy Year; since the Vicar of Christ has indeed opened the Holy Doors I offer you the olive branch which is the sign of peace….In fact, during Advent I prepared for the Holy Year by reading Saint Augustine, reading which I haven’t yet finished, but from which I have received immense happiness, a profound joy, which until now unfortunately had not penetrated my soul.  I’m also doing some literary studies…and then I’ll move to studies of philosophy, if I find a good translation of the works of Thomas Aquinas.  You see that my plans for the Holy Year are grand.  I believe that I had thus found a better way to alternate my boring study of mechanical technology with delightful readings.

 

And what are you doing?  When will you be coming?  Turin is anxious to hear from you….When will you return?

 

The year has begun well, after toasting it with my family I went to Holy Martyrs Church; there in the church, crowded with people, we prayed that there would be peace in Italy and peace among us.  And this peace, which is the burning desire of us all, we hope will come this year in which the graces of the Lord are multiplied….

 

I am delighted to close my student career in such a beautiful year.  And now I should bid you farewell, because study is calling me back to work and meanwhile all the best for a good prosecution, best wishes above all that you will always possess the True Peace, which is the best gift that one can possess on this earth.

The excerpt comes from the magazine Magnificat, January 2025 (Vol. 26, No. 11) edition, pages 130-31.

I love this excerpt.  We see so much into his personality.  He was studious like a good Dominican should be, and he was very gregarious and very humble.  When I pray for the well being of my friends, I appeal to the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.  I don’t know if he will have this patronage, but I consider him the patron saint of friendship.  If I had realized at the time, I might have taken the name Pier Giorgio as my Lay Dominican name.  If you are a friend of mine, I have put you in my prayers through the intercession of Pier Giorgio.

I had the good fortune last year to come across a rosary with the centerpiece comprising of a picture of Pier Giorgio and a relic (third class I think) of his.  I have been using it at my Lay Dominican chapter meetings for the praying of our rosary.  Here is a picture of it.  First with the front of his centerpiece, and second of the flip side.

The relic side states “Ex Indumentis” which is Latin for “from the clothes.”  Apparently it’s from a piece from his clothing.

Sadly, Pier Giorgio would pass away later in the year of 1925, on the fourth of July, I think. 

Blessed Pier Giorgio, soon to be saint, pray for us and pray for my friends.

Sunday Meditation: The Sermon of the Great Reversal

 

No, the Sermon of the Great Reversal is not something you have missed in your learning of the New Testament.  It’s my renaming of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  On the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, we are presented with Jesus’s great sermon of Blessedness.  I call it the Sermon of the Great Reversal because Jesus reverses the values of the world and presents us the values of the Kingdom of God.

 

Jesus came down with the Twelve

and stood on a stretch of level ground

with a great crowd of his disciples

and a large number of the people

from all Judea and Jerusalem

and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.

And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

            “Blessed are you who are poor,

                        for the kingdom of God is yours.

            Blessed are you who are now hungry,

                        for you will be satisfied.

            Blessed are you who are now weeping,

                        for you will laugh.

            Blessed are you when people hate you,

                        and when they exclude and insult you,

                        and denounce your name as evil

                        on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!

Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.

For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

            But woe to you who are rich,

                        for you have received your consolation.

            Woe to you who are filled now,

                        for you will be hungry.

            Woe to you who laugh now,

                        for you will grieve and weep.

            Woe to you when all speak well of you,

                        for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

~Lk 6:17, 20-26

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant instructs us on the language intricacies of this passage, and then enlightens us to the Great Reversal.

This is going to seem odd that Dr. Brant Pitre is going to provide the pastoral explanation of the passage, but he does.  In his explanation of the passage, he connects it with the carrying of our daily crosses.

 

Where you find happiness is through the detachment of earthly goods.  Does Luke mean to imply a spiritual detachment or an actual detachment?  This might be more controversial, but I think he means actual detachment, actual poverty, actual hunger, actual mourning, and actual rejection.  After all, isn’t that Christ’s life?

 

Sunday Meditation: “Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”

 

John Michael Talbot’s “The Beatitudes” is the proper hymn here.

 

 

Movie: Looking at Heaven: The Life of St. José Sánchez Del Rio

I’m not much of a movie goer, but when my Adult Faith Formation class at my parish decided to skip our regular Monday meeting for a movie I didn’t have much of a choice.  So we canceled the class a couple of Mondays ago to attend a movie at one of our local theaters dedicated to Catholic Movie Night.  I am not sure if Catholic Movie Night is a once per month event or ad hoc, but they scheduled a Catholic movie for this particular Monday night, and it wouldn’t be in the theaters otherwise.  The move was Looking at Heaven: The Life of St. José Sánchez Del Rio, the life of a teenage Catholic martyr during the The Cristero War in Mexico during the 1920s. 

The Cristero War was a rebellion/civil war within Mexico during a time the Civil Government tried to squash and eliminate the Catholic faith.  Churches were closed.  Priests were hunted down and killed if caught celebrating Mass.  The rebellion became known as the Cristo Rey (Christ the King) movement and their exclamation was Viva Cristo Rey!  A more comprehensive movie of the rebellion was produced in 2012 titled For Greater Glory.  

Looking at Heaven has a narrower story of a young man, José Sánchez del Río, who at the age of fourteen joined the Cristero movement, was captured, tortured, and martyred for his faith.  The movie is in Spanish with subtitles, but I will say I had no problem following the dialogue.  José came from a devout Catholic family.  His two older brothers had already joined the Cristero soldiers, and when at the point that José could no longer tolerate the persecution toward Catholics joined himself.  The priest who led the Catholic group to the movie theater said the movie depiction was very true to the known facts.

Let’s go through a couple of video clips here.  First there is a biographical clip on the life of José Sánchez del Río.

 

Next is the Trailer for the movie.

 

Finally if you want to see the whole two hour movie, it’s currently available on YouTube. 

 

Edit: It was taken down.  Look for it every so often, you may find it back.

The movie is beautifully produced.  The musical score was so perfect.  The acting outstanding, especially given the young actors.  The cinematography was beautiful, with interesting close in scenes and lavish outdoor vistas.  And finally the story was wonderfully rendered.  It was a beautiful, heart moving movie.  I highly recommend it.  Five stars!