Sarx

Fifth in the 2009 series on the Great O Antiphons. The complete text of the Antiphons is here, and a meta-post listing all the meditations is here.

 Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

 Dawn, splendor of eternal light, and sun of justice, come, and shine on those seated in darkness, and in the shadow of death.

ASTWARD Facing – praying facing the light of dawn – to be, literally, Oriented, has been the Christian tradition for 2,000 years. I’ve seen suggestions that we face east because that’s where Jerusalem is (after the tradition of the Jews) but no. It’s not an earthly place towards which we look, but rather it is the sunrise, that is, Jesus himself that we face in this natural icon.

I’m noticing the layers of the patterns, the way the antiphons in preparation for the incarnation walk us through a prayer for wisdom, then a commentary on the universal God, then a specific people, then a family… and now we turn to nature. The image of God seen everywhere and everywhen becoming God, here. Now.

If you see the rising sun in the east as an Icon of Christ, it’s ok to honour it. To the pure, one of the saints have said, all is pure. And so the image of Solar Worship, for some writers in the OT a shorthand for idolatry, becomes a holy symbol. It’s worth noting this verse about the dawn is sung on 21 December – the night of the solstice.

Of course, God wasn’t preparing just the Jewish people for his Messiah: Jesus was prefigured in the Tao, in the Greek world, among the Celts, in all the cultures of humankind, destined to carry salvation to them. In all these cultures, in all these worlds, the “old testament” of those people was written in pagan signs and spoken in the name of heathen gods, but truth is one – shining on those in darkness.