“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away,” said Jesus. I was reminded of these words, which come from the Gospel reading for Bible Sunday (Matthew 24. 30-35), as I was reading the book that Maddy Channer has written about her experiences working as a nurse in Peru. The book is called Echoes from the Andes and in it Maddy tells the stories of people that she encountered through her nursing work.
One of those whose story she tells was Jacinto whose wife Pascuala died an untimely death. Maddy writes, “Sad and weary, [Jacinto] felt his strength, especially his spiritual strength, ebbing away. He turned to Quechua hymns and sacred texts for solace. He remembered Christ alone in Gethsemene …
In the course of time, Jacinto found the memory of Pascuala’s suffering and his own pain and loneliness was transformed, so that he was quick to recognize pain and hurt in others, and respond to their need. All suffering was in some way, for him, related to her suffering.
He not only identified with the pain of those he encountered, but in particular, the sufferings of Christ – the corner-stone of his faith: the ultimate symbol of innocent suffering.
He came to understand that love is eternal, and both human and divine love are somehow intertwined and would remain with him for always.”
She also tells the story of Aurelio, who first appears in the book in this way:
“A figure appeared in the doorway of the tiny church in the middle of a scripture lesson.
“Aurelio, come on over, you’re late,” beckoned one of the boys. Aurelio pulled out a chair and joined them. He was just thirteen. His grey trousers were too short, and his red jumper barely covered his waist. Thick black hair stood out from his forehead like the bristles of a new broom. He was reserved and quiet, but soon became deeply immersed in the book given him to read …
Aurelio sold bread on the trains at weekends. He would set off on a Friday evening and catch the train to Sicuani, about a hundred miles away, and return the following day. He earned forty new pence.
“Where do you sleep in Sicuani on Friday nights Aurelio?” I enquired.
“In the street, Seńorita.”
“But it is very cold at this time of year, especially at night!”
“Seńorita, if I can’t endure the cold? Look what Christ suffered!”
Maddy writes that she pondered Aurelio’s words, “In his adversity, his thoughts were of Christ.” And his thoughts were of Christ because of what he had read of Christ in scripture and then experienced of Christ in his life.
Aurelio and Jacinto came to understand their lives and suffering as a part of the big story of salvation that is told in scripture and which can also bring meaning to our lives as we see ourselves living within that story.
What is this big story? Gabriel Josipovici has described it like this:
“It’s a magnificent conception, spread over thousands of pages and encompassing the entire history of the universe. There is both perfect correspondence between Old and New Testaments and a continuous forward drive from Creation to the end of time: ‘It begins where time begins, with the creation of the world; it ends where time ends, with the Apocalypse, and it surveys human history in between, or the aspect of history it is interested in, under the symbolic names of Adam and Israel’. Earlier ages had no difficulty in grasping this design, though our own, more bookish age, obsessed with both history and immediacy, has tended to lose sight of it. Neither theologians nor biblical scholars have stood back enough to see it as a whole. Yet it is a whole and quite unlike any other book.”
Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, has written about this big story as being like a five act play. Act 1 is Creation, Act 2 is the Fall, Act 3 is the story of Israel and Act 4 the story of Jesus. The writing of the New Testament is the first scene in Act 5 and also gives us hints of how the play will end. The church, that is all Christians, including us, are then actors in Act 5 improvising our scenes on the basis of what has gone before and how we know the story will end.
This is what Aurelio and Jacinto did, their thoughts were on Christ and understanding their lives and suffering in the light of his story. Their actions – sleeping on the streets to earn money for the family and recognizing pain and hurt in others and responding – became part of the story of salvation throughout which God is seen in human form and this world drawn into the coming fullness of the kingdom of God. Our lives and actions, like theirs, can also be part of this big story as we immerse ourselves in the story through scripture and act out our part in the unfolding narrative of salvation history.
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Beth Rowley - Oh My Life.
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