Saturday, December 9 - Tears of God

The Greek word "kenosis" means 'self-emptying'.  It is also the title of Luci Shaw's poem, which explores the infancy of Jesus while alluding to his later life:

In sleep his infant mouth works in and out.

He is so new, his silk skin has not yet

been roughed by plane and wooden beam

nor, so far, has he had to deal with human doubt

Malcolm Guite writes appreciatively of the way Shaw captures Jesus' infancy: 

"I find this a very helpful corrective to certain classic portrayals of Mary and the infant Jesus in art and iconography, in which he so often appears as somehow already grown up: a little king, richly robed, sitting up on his mother's lap, haloed and dispensing blessings and wisdom!  Instead, we get the detail of the 'infant mouth' working in and out, seeking the comfort of the breast.  And this in itself conveys the kenosis perfectly." (35)

The special quality of Shaw's poem consists in her ability to place us all in the nursery with Mary and the infant Jesus, allowing him to be the true infant he was, like all of us once were.  Yet, she makes room for the adult he will become.  His skin will be 'roughed by plane and wooden beam'.  This is a double theme, referring both to his trade as a carpenter, and to the place of his execution.  Shaw picks up this theme again in her final stanza:

So new he has not pounded nails, hung a door,

broken bread, felt rebuff, bent to the lash,

wept for the sad heart of the human race.

Here, we still see the double reference to his adult work in carpentry, and his "It is finished" work on the cross.  And, beautifully, we are shown his adult tears for the stubborn heart of humanity, which takes us back to the infancy again.  He is so new.  He weeps.  Yet, he weeps these young tears, not as he'll weep when as a full grown man, he weeps over Jerusalem, or at Lazarus' tomb.