XIV Jesus is Lain in the Tomb
Martha Rasco

Lamentation

"It is such a pleasure to write down splendid words…almost as though one were inventing them." Rupert Hart Davis "Words are wells of living waters, combs of honey, delightful ears of corn…golden pots in which manna is stored, udders of milk…" Richard De Bury I love the power and beauty of well-chosen words. The written word can be powerful, evocative, piercing, humorous. I have been doing calligraphy for twenty-one years, and it has proved to be a wonderful journey. Over the years I have had the great privilege and pleasure to receive instruction and inspiration from many of the most gifted calligraphers of our time. I enjoy using fine papers, gouache, gold leaf and collage. This current piece is my maiden voyage using both acrylics and canvas. It was a particular challenge to me, not only because I was learning to use new mediums, but because of the subject, "Jesus is Laid in the Tomb." Somber, dark, flooded with grief and sorrow it was, the Son of God crucified, lying dead and cold, his body "breathless clay," laid in the tomb. It was a painful joy to work on this piece. My goal was to portray, in a limited space, images and words and colors and shapes that would somehow touch upon the universality of human sorrow in grief, death, the dark night of the soul when it seems there is no hope or help. I realize the fourteenth station of the cross is about loss of hope, about despair, about the deepest anguish of the human heart.

The image at the top is part of a structure in the old city of Jerusalem. The mourning woman is a photograph by Roman Vishniac, and I do not know the photographer of the Holocaust bodies. The image of "The Dead Christ" is a painting by Champaigne. Most of the text is from the book of Lamentation, but words from Micah, Jeremiah and the book of Psalms are also included. Some of the words under the dead Christ are from a hymn by James Montgomery. Yet God has never left us without hope. He is the God of Hope. I wanted to portray a subtle thread of hope in the midst of all that sorrow. I did this with the light coming down from the top left of the piece making a path to the bottom. I also put in the two lines of Hebrew lettering to be a kind of hidden message of hope. The Hebrew words at the top of the piece with the Jerusalem image are from Psalm 50:2-3a. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God will come and shall not keep silent." This scripture is bursting with hope and promise. When Jesus comes back the next time, his foot will descend in Jerusalem first. He will shine forth from Zion. The second line of Hebrew with the image of Christ is from Psalm 16:10. "You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption." David declares his hope in God for the resurrection of his own mortal body, and prophesies the resurrection of the not-yet-born Messiah. The fact that Jesus identified with the human race by becoming a human being and suffered and died an anguished death is a humbling mystery. I am grateful to have participated in this expression of His humanity. "Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise of painting speech and speaking to the eyes? That we, by tracing magic lines, are taught how to embody and to colour thought." William Massey