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Church of Our
Saviour
191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094
Tel: 201-863-1449
Fax: 201-863-1474
Mark A. Lewis,
Vicar
MLewis@secaucus.org
Dorothy Fowlkes
Pastoral Associate
This page revised 15
Apr 01
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oursaviour
The Church of
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Parsifal and
God's Love
Reflections on the
lessons
for Easter Sunday, 15 April 2001
By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar
Isaiah 51:9-11 / Psalm 118:14-17,
22-24
Colossians 3:1-4 / Luke 24:1-10
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends when Easter officially begins at sundown on Holy Saturday. But for me, this year, it was one day longer. My own lead-up to Easter started the day before Palm Sunday when I went to the Metropolitan Opera to see Wagner's Parsifal. I'll never forget it. I could keep you all day telling you why. But I'll only hit on the high spots so we can get on with our celebrations.
First, after twenty-five years of listening to the Texaco live broadcasts of the Met's Saturday matinees, I actually sat in the audience during one of those programs heard by people all over the world. (An old friend of mine from Sweden e-mailed me the next day to ask if I'd heard it on the radio. I was very smug when I answered "No - in person".) And it was unforgettable because it was beautiful -- Placido Domingo sang the title role. And it IS hard to forget an opera that lasts six straight hours. Six hours, though, that for me -- and quite possibly for you, too -- just flew by. When the last chord faded, I would have gladly sat right there and heard it all over again.
Now why would that be? Wagner's music is just so beautiful to me that I can't get enough. Despite Mark Twain's comment ("Wagner's operas are actually much better than they sound.") a big woman with a spear and a horned helmet screaming her head off just isn't what you hear when you get there. What you hear is a shimmering, meditative, subtle tapestry of voices and orchestra woven seamlessly together. It's as close to a spiritual, liturgical, even sacred experience as you'll ever get in a theater.
And that's what lifts the plot out of the ordinary. Wagner took his stories from ancient German mythology and they can be told out of context in ways that make them seem downright silly. There are magic gardens full of "flower maidens" who try to talk knights out of their shining armor. Mad wizards cast evil spells. A sorceress with a heart of gold rides her magic horse around the world.
But the main story is about the Holy Grail. The cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper has been taken to Spain for safekeeping by some angels and a roundtable of knights spend their lives guarding it against harm. The knights are getting old and they are waiting for destiny to send them their next leader -- and he'll need to be something special. Well, after about four or five hours of twists and turns and setbacks, the right guy shows up in the right place at the right time with the right attitude. And it's Parsifal.
His old mentor, a hermit called Gurnemanz, is sitting in the woods one Good Friday morning and Parsifal comes riding back after a long absence. Parsifal is ready at last to take on the job of guarding the Holy Grail, and to spend the rest of his life meditating on how God is present in the world. Actually, physically present.
They walk out of the woods and stand on the edge of a gorgeous spring meadow. Sunshine, green buds, wildflowers everywhere as far as the eye can see. Winter is gone at last. Spring and new birth are all over the place. It 's the first real spring day. And it's Good Friday. "Why should the world be so beautiful on the saddest day of the year?" Parsifal asks. And Gurnemanz's answer to him finally made me understand what's good about Good Friday. And how the cross of Good Friday points directly to Easter.
"It isn't the saddest day. It's the most glorious day of the year," the old man answers. Good Friday sets before the whole creation -- animals and plants just as much as people -- just how very much God loves us, loves everything. God loves us enough to come and live and die as one of us -- die for us, we say -- regardless of how little we understand it, or deserve it, or appreciate it. God loves a flower as much as a squirrel, a sinner as much as a saint -- all the same. Just because that's what God does. God loves.
The old knight goes on. It is a six-hour show. He tells Parsifal that the supreme evidence of God's love for is not there for us to see anymore. Jesus is not on the cross anymore. So, to look at concrete evidence of God's enormous love, we have to look instead at all creation. And when we look at the unbelievable variety and wonder of all things, humankind and plant life and animals and the wind and the seas; when we look at the vastness of what God loves, we start to get some idea of how huge that love is. Then how could we help but love the people and the natural world around us? And how could we doubt that in the range of infinite love there is a place even for you and me?
"How can I ever thank God for this?" Parsifal asks. Gurnemanz answers that the earth and the skies and the plants and the animals all thank God in their own ways by blooming and warming and nesting and singing. Humankind alone, though, can take it up a notch. On top of all the other things we do to honor and serve the world God loves -- including being good to ourselves. We can thank God by taking the bread and wine of Holy Communion. By memorializing the cross and resurrection in a mystical, yet physical, way. Bloom and sing and shine as much as you can, but we can also thank God in a way unique to humanity when we take into our bodies and spirits bread and wine that we consecrate as symbols of the pact of love God has made with all creation.
-- Mark Lewis
Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org.
Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page.
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