The Eastern Christian image for Easter is not of Jesus stepping out of the tomb or floating above it, but this icon titled: The Harrowing of Hell. Synonyms for harrowing might be words like — terrifying, heart-rending, alarming, traumatic, chilling, distressing, excruciating.
"He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell. These words start off the millions of rosaries that are prayed every day around the world. We do think about what we say?
If "hell" is a kind of semi-geographical place, then what? But I would suggest "hell" has much more to do with the deepest decent of humankind's mind. It is the pit below we see in the icon — the dark, hideousness of our depraved offenses before God. It's the devilish insanity, the monstrous mind that wants us chained and imprisoned. Jesus has found us there and invaded it. See the locks and keys, the hardware that keeps humanity sealed in.
Jesus, champion-like, rushes to our rescue, breaking down the now crisscrossed gates behind which humanity sits, trapped, side-tracked and lost. This icon is a detail of a much larger frescoed monastery wall. We don't see the many other figures who Christ has already pulled out of the hell-hole, the death hole. See Eve already rescued on the right, and last of all old Adam. In other words — the long human story.
The harrowing of hell is Christ, invading that human state of mind, heart and soul that from early on has quarantined itself off from light and life.
There have been more than 107 mass shootings in our nation already this year —a marked increase over last year. By definition, a mass shooting leaves four or more persons dead at a time. No one is spared — even little children are dead. No place is spared — parks, synagogues, churches, mosques. We may take notice for a news cycle, sending up "thoughts and prayers." I think that's blasphemous (a God insult while we do nothing about why it happens). The murderous state of hell-mind is enabled by gun lust, gun fetish, gun worship — an idolatry no less than that of the wild dance around that other stupid god of metal in the Sinai desert. The new "wild dance" is the twists and turns we perform to defend guns of the most outrageous kind — the 2nd amendment more sacred than a bible verse. Lots of Christians do the dance.
And there are many other hellish states of mind — the colonial explorer-world which was, in truth, a plunder-r world, the drug underworld, the organized crime underworld, the sex trafficking underworld, the underworld that rapes the planet for greed, the secreted sex abuse underworld of institutions (including the Church,) the genocide underworld, the underworld of bold-faced lies, the global militarization underworld that enriches some nations, while leaving others shockingly poor. The dark pit in the icon is the humanity-mind that lets children starve to death, that weeds out to extinction the weaker ones.
The Bubble-World I sometimes reference here is the, "I don't want to know about it," world. Anyway, we believe that Christ has stepped down into that world and beat it back. Then why is it still so sadly, even depressingly operative? Have we failed Christ who invites us to learn from him? Do we just admire Christ in a monstrance or tabernacle, but perhaps, even unknown to ourselves, think him to be naïve, having nothing to do with how we live on this planet? It is said, "It is easier to move a mountain than to change a human heart." So, this Eastertime I will resist the Bubble-World and do everything I can to get Christ (his new mind) into my life — there is everything to take him away.
Is there some wintry, ice encased, inner thought-place, some inside piece of me, that Christ wants to harrow? Which is by no means the same as flashing a Jesus Saves banner at the next anti-anything riot, or standing up a ten foot cross in front of a governor's mansion or court house. It's alarmingly personal.
