The Korsun Mother of God and a Priest's Life

Father Michael Himes died recently, a Brooklyn priest who taught me in seminary in the 1970's. Much has been written about Father Himes of course, as he was a brilliant theologian who made every theological point immediately meaningful for our own time and lives. But as I wrote to a classmate- friend recently, I remember the precise moment (and even where I was sitting in class) when I realized more than anything that this priest loved us. He never spoke to us as if he thought we were stupid or that he was above us, or that we were a waste of his time. That was an important lesson for us who were preparing for priesthood. How grateful I am that our paths had crossed.

Steve Miller wrote a reflective essay about Father Himes. Here's the paragraph I think was most important.

Father Himes told the story of a young woman traveling to the New World with a female companion. The companion went above deck for some fresh air but the young woman stayed below attending to an expectant mother. A rogue wave surged over the deck washing the companion overboard and into the sea, where she perished. The young woman  whose life was spared was Michael Himes' great grandmother. He made the point that for the trillion upon trillion upon trillion circumstances, decisions and twists had to go just right for him to come into existence and how "very extraordinary love" had made his life and each of ours. 

 

And here is a 19th century icon of the Korsun Mother of God. We see the Mother of God and the Holy Child from the shoulder up. Faces and hands. the Mother of God wears a terra-cotta colored maphorian (mantle) — she is not a goddess, but of the earth, and as such she is one with us. Notice there are folds in her mantle that echo those found in nature: the ridges of a scallop shell, the pleats of a palm branch, the gills of a mushroom which springs up overnight. 

The icon is filled with intense emotion. The elongated fingers, the intertwined hands, the inclination of heads and faces pressed to each other, the tightness of lips, even the furrowed brows. The Christ Child seems to have been swept up by and into the Mother's love — perhaps an image of the soul's longing and aspiring to higher, spiritual things. Notice the Child has a good grip on Mary's mantle. We need to "hold on tight" these days of stress and sadness, lies, violent death and clay-minded power displays. Hold on tight!

The Christ holds the Gospel-Word in a little white scroll. But the scroll is yet to be unrolled. There is time for that. Right now he wants for us to know that we are blessed and held in the "very extraordinary love," that marvelously and wondrously secures each of us each day.

A Prayer in Difficult Times

Save us who are perishing
O Most Holy Virgin,

chasten us not according to our sins,

but as you are merciful in your

love for humankind, have pity,

deliver us from eternal loss,

sickness and necessity
and save us.

Some Christians, by choice, receive only a very little news of what is happening in the world. Some have no knowledge of what's happening at all. They say knowledge of the world's suffering steals their peace. I would say this ignorance is a luxury we cannot afford. 

I cannot imagine Jesus saying: It's best not to know about the seven hundred drowned migrants fleeing Libya for Africa. And best not to know about the raping of the Yazidi twelve year old girls and their grandmothers. You're right, be at peace and maintain your generic prayer - ignorant of the murder of the Ethiopian Christians and the wars being fought to safeguard the mines of precious metals needed for your future computer use.

This kind of ignorance makes for narcissistic religion. If Jesus went to the mountains, it was never for long. He was always with people in their pain. His expanded heart wasn't directed to the beauties of the desert or the wilderness but for the people right in front of him and those he went out of his way to find.

We might print the little Korsun icon of the Mother of God at the top of the post here and the prayer - setting it where we are sure to find it each morning. 

The Korsun Mother of God

The Korsun Mother of God is of the type called
Glykophilousa ~ Sweet Kissing ~
the image
reduced to the faces of
Jesus and Mary
in an intensity of love,
as mothers do in covering
their children
with kisses and caresses.

Cropped below the shoulder
everything is gazes and the
gathering up of four hands

The argument falls apart that icons are severe
as the features of the Korsun Theotokos and her Son,
so humanly tender,
have become known and much-loved beyond
the borders of Byzantium.

While the Holy Mother
holds the Infant
with two hands ~
bringing him to her heart ~
she also holds him in her eyes.
The gaze itself, a prayer.

The Holy Child holds onto his mother's maphorion,
great folds echoing
ripples in water,
fronds of a palm,
ribs of a shell ~
the scallop producing a pearl very rare.

In her gaze has
Mary just heard the prophecy of Holy Simeon,
"And a sword of sorrow will pierce your soul also," (Luke 2:35)?
Where does she look?
At her Child?
At you?
At me?

Or does she look through us,
to what is beyond ~ above,
into the future?
Gaze at her - receive her love.
Gaze at her - give her your love.

The star above her forehead is one of three;
two  concealed in the shoulder-folds of the maphorion.
God has drawn her in
to live in the folds of the Trinitarian life.

Beneath her veil  the cap of a married Syrian woman.
A bowl  ~ a dome of stars
covering her divine Son.
Oh, pray for poor Syria and her
ancient Christianity
that the dome would open up
restoring
the land and living things,
reconciliation,
healing for
churches, farms and homes.

The forehead of the Child is large
containing the thoughts of God
for an eternity,
and the names of all the countries
and our names and faces.
The knowledge of our existence ~
and the Child's face shines.

His robe is woven in gold
Her mantle of Blood-Earth
envelops him.

The interplay of hands.
A Sonata for Four Hands, we say.
Here, the work of salvation for four hands.

We think we already know the contents of
his teaching contained in the rolled scroll.
The hardest part ~ the little bit about forgiving ~
to be born from above without hatred.

Gandhi was fascinated
with the non-violent teachings of Jesus.
but  never baptized a Christian:
his Indian brothers and sisters
oppressed by enslaving,
British colonizers
who claimed to follow Jesus.
Colonizers take more than they give.

The Korsun Theotokos
was painted by Luke the Evangelist
and kept at Ephesus until 988
when Prince Vladimir transferred
a copy to Holy Russia.
Along the way it passed through Korsun
where the people asked if it might
stay with them for a year.
The icon thereafter being called
the Korsun Mother of God.

Echoing the plea of that populace ~
'Stay with us' might become our own prayer
before the Holy Icon.

But first to remember that a terrible battle took place
at Korsun during the Second World War between
Russian and German soldiers.
Called a slaughter,
the hands of those raised in surrender
were lopped off.

And as we gaze at the soft smile of the Mother of God
ponder that
in the 1950's  people smiled on average
of fifty times a day.
Now it is said that people smile only
fifteen times a day:
"I work so hard because
I want  my children to have all the things
I never had growing up." Meanwhile ~ to forfeit smiling?

Stay with us, Korsun Mother of God,
empowering forgiveness
in your atmosphere of peace
in your smile
in the restoration of hope
tenderize hearts.

Stay with us, Korsun Mother of God,
to our awakening
no more slaughter
blessing the work of our hands
opening souls to light
hide me in your maphorion.

Stay with us, Korsun Mother of  God,
as I unroll your Son's scroll
see me in your gazing.
weave me a robe of gold
Oh that we would know
we are loved like this!