Good morning…
“Hi Sue,” one of you wrote earlier in the week, after watching the video of Michaelanglo’s statue, the Pieta. “The words of healing and strength from you and others is always needed and much appreciated. I hesitated to share my Pieta experience since it doesn’t reflect deep sorrow or grief, but it shares a small taste of a very different emotion.”
“At age 17, in 1964,” she went on to share, “I attended the World’s Fair in New York on a senior class trip. It was the first time I experienced claustrophobia in crowds. Although I was with a group of girl friends, I feared separation and became panicked when searching a million strange faces. The fair was filled with pavilions and restaurants from around the world.”
She continued her story from long ago: “Somehow I ended up in the Vatican Pavilion with no clue even what the Vatican was. A moving sidewalk took us into a darkened and very quiet room. Before me – but behind glass – was The Pieta in all its glory! No noise but some rustling. No sounds except a few gasps and perhaps whispered prayers. No sense of anyone except God. I felt a peace come over me that resulted in tears of joy and relief. A different kind of peace I’ve only felt a few times in my life and I remember so vividly.”
She concluded: “I never saw it in person again, but I studied it and read the artistic critiques of the unrealistic proportions of Mary to Jesus’ body. I grieved when it was vandalized. It had become my Pieta. Comforting, loving, the Mother of Christ personified in the beauty of marble. Long before I saw my own mother lose two sons in their 20’s. So your post touched me differently, reminding me of God’s reach to the young and old, the naive or life-worn, those grieving and those celebrating Christ’s life-giving resurrection. Thank you for using God’s words for each of us for varied reasons. I love you.”
In the past he spoke to them and said, “Here is a resting place. Let those who are tired come and rest. This is the place of peace.” But they would not listen to him (Isaiah 28:12, ERV).
Might right here, right now, in the midst of our mixed emotions, be our best spot to rest, our place of peace? Whether we are tired, anxious, or claustrophobic in a crowd, God quietly whispers, “Rest here with Me.”
Young or old, naive or life-worn, grieving or celebrating, might we be ready now to nestle in anew, resting on God’s large lap of loving presence?
…Sue…
