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Chapter 82MedVC.1.82

Hora completorii

John and Joseph at the Cross

John meets Joseph of Arimathea, they mourn together, and with reverent sorrow they adore the Lord at the cross.

And he has not forsaken us. Son, go meet them.1 John therefore goes out to meet him, and coming together they embrace one another with great weeping, unable through their deep grief to speak to each other, so tender is their compassion and so abundant their tears and pain; afterward they come toward the cross.2 Joseph asks who are there with the Lady, and what has become of the other disciples. John says to him: those women who are there. About the disciples, however, he answers that he does not know, because none of them has been there today.3 He also asks about the things that were done to the Lord, and John recounts them to him one by one.4 And when they were near the place, kneeling and weeping they adored the Lord.

The New Light of Consolation

The mourners are received and bow in sorrow, and the Lady speaks of a new light rising as they resolve to offer what service they still can.

When they arrived, they were received reverently by the Lady and by others. With knees bent, they bowed all the way to the ground. In the same way, they knelt and, weeping bitterly, stood there for a long hour. At last the Lady says: You do well to hold the memory of your Master, for he loved you greatly. And I confess that in your coming, it seemed to me a new light had risen.✦ For we did not know what we ought to do. May the Lord repay you. And they reply: We grieve with our whole heart over all that has been done against him. For the wicked have prevailed against the just one.✦ We would gladly have snatched him from such great injustice, if we had been able. At least let us offer this small service to the Lord and to our Master.

The Deposition from the Cross

At the narrator's urging, the deposition is described as Joseph and Nicodemus labor to remove the nails while carefully supporting the Lord's body.

Rising therefore, they prepared themselves to lay down the body of Jesus. You, however — as I've told you elsewhere — pay careful attention to how the body is taken down, and observe it with grief.5 Ladders are placed against the sides of the cross, set opposite each other; Joseph of Christ climbs the ladder on the right side and struggles to pull out the nail from his hand.6 But this is difficult, because the nail is thick and long, driven firmly into the wood, and without great pressure on the Lord's hand it doesn't seem possible to get it out.7 But there's no violence in it, because he acts faithfully, and the Lord accepts it wholly.8 Once that nail has been torn out, John nodded to Joseph to hand him the nail, so that the Lady wouldn't see it. Then Nicodemus pulled out the other nail from the left hand, and likewise gave the nail to John. Nicodemus climbs down and goes to the nail in the foot.

The Body Placed on the Ground

Joseph embraces the body, the Lady kisses the pierced hand, and the Lord's body is laid on the ground as lamentation rises and the hour of Compline arrives.

Joseph was indeed holding the body of Doraini; and happy indeed was Joseph himself, who was able to embrace the body of Doraini in this way. Then the Lady reverently received the right hand, hanging down, and placed it against her own face, gazing at it, and kissing it with tears, loud cries, and sorrowful sighs. After the nail was torn out of the foot area, Joseph came down quietly, and all TOM. Twelve. They receive the body of the Lord and place it on the ground. The Lady receives the head, with her shoulders, into her own lap; Magdalene, however, takes the feet, at which she had once found such great grace. The others stand around; all make a great lamentation over him, for they all mourn as if he were their only-begotten, most bitter.✦ The hour of Compline.

Mary Gazes on the Wounded Body

As night nears, Mary delays the burial, contemplating each wound of her Son, especially His face, and the text cites Isaiah on the Suffering Servant.

After a short delay, when night had drawn near, Joseph asked the Lady to allow him to wrap the body in linen cloths and bury it. She was insisting, saying: 'Do not, my friends, so quickly take my little child away, or bury me with him.' She was weeping with irremediable tears, gazing at the wounds of his hands and his side — now one, now another — she kept looking at his stricken face. She looked at his head and saw the thorn-pricks, the tearing out of his beard, his face disfigured with spit and blood, his head shorn; and she could never have her fill of weeping and gazing. It is written, however, in a certain text, that the Lord revealed to His devotee that He Himself was shorn of hair and depilated of beard; but the Evangelists did not write all things. And indeed, that He Himself was shorn — or however it was — I cannot prove through Scripture; but the tearing out of the beard can be proved. Isaiah says in the person of the Lord: 'I gave my body to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked them.'✦ And so that mother gazed faithfully at all these things, longing to look upon them at length.

Preparing the Body for Burial

John persuades the Lady to allow the burial; the body is wrapped, while she holds His head and Magdalene claims the feet that once found mercy.

As the hour was drawing late, John says: Lady, let us accommodate Joseph and Nicodemus, and allow the body of our Lord to be prepared and buried, because from too great a delay they might suffer accusation from the Jews. At this voice, as though pleasing and discreet, thinking that to John himself she had been entrusted through her son, she refused to argue further, and blessing him, she allowed the body to be prepared and wrapped. Then John, and Nicodemus, and others began to wrap the body and prepare it with linen cloths, as was the custom among the Jews. The Lady, however, always held his head in her lap, which she had reserved for herself to prepare, and Magdalene held his feet. When therefore they came to the legs near the feet, Magdalene says: I ask you to allow me to prepare his feet, at which I have obtained mercy.✦ With their permission granted, she held those feet. She seemed to faint from grief. , L, 6.

Magdalene's Final Service at the Feet

Magdalene washes Christ's feet with grief-filled tears, remembering how she loved much and now weeps much, doing what she can though it is not enough.

And the feet that she had once watered with tears of compunction, she now washed far more abundantly with waves of tears born of grief and compassion. She gazed at the feet — so wounded, so pierced, so dried out and caked with blood — and she wept most bitterly, without restraint. For as Truth itself bore witness about her, she loved much; and so she wept much — and most of all in this final act of service to her Master and Lord, seeing him so afflicted, so scourged, so wounded, so dead, and so reduced to nothing.✦ Her heart could scarcely keep beating in her body for grief — but it is easy to imagine that, if she could, she would have willingly breathed her last at the feet of her Lord. She saw no remedy for her grief, nor was she accustomed to attending to him in such circumstances. This is the new and final act of service that she now offers him; and in offering it, her soul is filled with bitterness, because she cannot do it as she would deeply wish and as would be fitting. For she would wish to wash the whole body, to anoint it, and to prepare it with great care — but there is neither time nor place. For she could do no more, and no other thing was possible — so she does what she can.

The Lady's Farewell Lament

After the body is prepared, the Lady bends over her dead Son, mourns their broken fellowship, and confesses both her sorrow and the innocence of the One slain for our redemption.

At least she washed his feet with tears; at last she devoutly wipes, embraces, kisses, and wraps them, and faithfully soothes them as best she knows how and is able. After the body had been prepared in this way, they look toward the Lady, so that she herself might complete it, and all take up the lamentation. Then she, seeing that she could no longer delay, places her face over the face of her sweetest son and says: My son, I hold you dead in my lap. The separation by your death is very hard. The companionship between us was pleasant and delightful, and without complaint or offense we lived among others, although you, my sweetest son, are now put to death as one guilty. Faithfully, my son, I served you, and you me, but in your painful struggle, neither did the Father will to help you, nor could I. You gave yourself up for love of the human race, which you wished to redeem. Harsh and exceedingly painful is this redemption, about which I rejoice because of the salvation of men. But in your sorrows and your death I am deeply afflicted, because I know that you never sinned, and without cause you were so bitterly killed in a death so shameful. Now therefore, my son, our fellowship is broken, and I must be separated from you.

Entrusting Her Soul to the Tomb

The Lady asks where she can go without her Son, declares she will bury her soul with Him, and tenderly washes, kisses, and wraps His head.

So I will bury you, I, your most devoted mother; but after that, where shall I go? Where shall I remain, my son? How can I bear to live without you? With you, then, I would be buried — Hbentius — so that wherever you were, I too would be with you. But since I cannot be buried with you in body, I will at least be buried with you in mind; I will lay my soul in the tomb with your body — the soul I now release, the soul I now entrust to you. O my son, how agonizing is this separation! And once more, from an abundance of tears, my own washed the face of her son more than Magdalene washed his feet.✦ She wipes his face, and kissing his mouth and his eyes, she wraps his head in a cloth and carefully arranges it.

Carried to the Tomb

They bless the Lord, carry Him with Mary at the head and Magdalene at the feet, and reverently bury Him in a rock-hewn tomb as the chapter closes.

At length she blessed him once more. And then all of them, worshipping him on bended knees and kissing his feet, took him up and carried him to the tomb. The Lady held the head and shoulders, Magdalene the feet; the rest stood in between. The tomb was near the place of crucifixion — about the length of our church, or thereabouts — in which they buried him reverently, on bended knees, with grief and great tears, and with deep, repeated sighs. When he had been buried, the Mother blessed him again, embraced him, and stood over her beloved son; but they lifted her up, and placed a great stone at the entrance of the tomb. Concerning this tomb, Bede says that it was a round chamber, hewn from the rock beneath, of such height that a man could scarcely reach the top with an outstretched hand, having its entrance on the east side; but in the northern part, the place for the Lord's body was made from the same rock, being seven feet in length.

Read the original Latin

et non dereliquit nos. Fili, occurras eis. Vadit ergo Joannes ejus obvius velocitcr, et attingentes se, ad invicera amplexantur cum tletu magno, non valentes per magnam lioram ad invicem sibi loqui, ex compassionis teneritudine, et abundantia fletus et doloris; postea veniunt adversus crucem. Quaerit Joseph, qui sint ibi cum Domina, et quid sit de aliis discipulis. Dicit illi Joannes istas, quee ibi sunt. De discipulis autem respondet se nescire, quia nullus ibi fuithodie. Quserit etiam de his, qua^ circa Dominum facta sunt, et narrat ei Joannes per singula. Cum autem fuerunt prope locum, genuflectentes et flentes adoraverunt Dominum.

Applicantes autem recepti fuerunt reverenter per Dominam et ahas? ocias genibus flexis, inclinautes usque ad terram. Similiter ipsi genuflectentes cum ploratu magno, sic steterunt per longam horam. Tandem Domina dicit: Benefacitis habentes memoriam Magistri vestri, quia multum vos dilexit: et fateor, quod in adventu vestro visum est mihi novam oriri lucem. Nesciebamus enim quid facere deberemus: Dominus vobis retribuat. Et illi: Dolemus ex toto corde nostro de his omnibu>, quae contra eum facta sunt: praevaluerunt enim impii contra justum. Libenter eum eripuissemus de tanta injustitia, si potuissemus. Saltem hoc modicum obsequium Domino et Magistro nostro praestabimus.

Surgentes ergo, paraverunt se ad deponendum corpus Jesu. Tu autem, ut aliis locis dixi tibi, diligenter et Modns morose modum depositionis attende. Ponuntur ieposi- scalae a lateribus crucis oppositae, Joseph hristi a ascendit super scalam lateris dextri, satagit ex""'• trahere clavum ipsius manus. Sed difficile est hoc, quia clavus grossus et longus est in bgno valde confixus, et sine magna suppressione manus Domini non videtur posse fieri. Sed non est vis, quia fideliter facit, et Dominus totura acceptat. Evulso illo, Joannes annuit Joseph,dictum clavum sibi porrigi, ne ipsum Domina videat. Deinde Nicoderaus alium extraxit manus sinistree, et clavum similiter dat Joanni. Descendit Nicodemus, et ivit ad clavura pedis.

Joseph vero sustentabat corpus Doraini; felix quippe ipse Joseph, qui corpus Doraini raeruit sic amplexari. Tunc pendentem manum dexteram Domina suscepit reverenter, et ponit ad vultum suum, intuetur, et osculatur cum lacryrais vahdis et suspiriis dolorosis. Evulso autera clavo pedura, pauUsper descendit Joseph, et omnes TOM. XII. accipiunt corpus Domini, et ponunt in terram. Domina suscipit caput cum scapuhs in gremio suo; Magdakma vero pedes, apud quos tantam gratiam olim invenerat. Alii circumstant; omnes faciunt planctum magnura super eum: omnes enim plangunt eura, quasi unigenitura, amarissirae. Rora Completorii.

Post aliquara morulam, cum nox appropinquasset, rogat Joseph Dominam, ut permittat eum volvi linteaminibus, et sepeliri. Ipsa contendebat, dicens: Nolite, amici mei, tara cito filiura meum accipere,vel me cum ipsosepelite. Flebat autem lacrymis irremediabilibus, aspiciebat vulnera manuum et lateris, modo unura, modo aliud; aspiciebat vultura ejus. et caput, et videbat spinarum puncturas, depilationem barbae, faciem et sputis et sanguine deturpatam, et caput tonsum; et de fletu et aspectu non poterat satiari. Legitur autem in quadam scriptura, quod Dominus devotae suae revelavit, quod ipse tonsus fuit capillis, et depilatus barba; sed Evangelistas non scripserunt orania. Et quidera quod ipse fuit tonsatus, vel sicut est, nescio probare per scripturara, sed de depilatione barbae potest probari. Dicit enira Isaias in persona Domini *: Corpus mmm dedi percutientibus, et genas meas vellentibus. Unde ipsa mater haec fideliter aspiciebat, morose videre volebat.

Tardante autem hora, dicit Joannes: Domina, condescendamus Joseph et Nicodemo, et permittamus aptari et sepeliri corpus Domini nostri, quia propter nimiam moram possent pati calumniam a Judfeis. Ad hanc vocera tanquam grata et discreta, cogitans quod ipsi Joanni coraraissa est per filiura, noluit amplius contendere, et benedicens eum, permisit aptari et involvi. Tunc Joannes, et Nicodemus, et aUi coeperunt involvere corpus, et aptare cum linteaminibus, ut mos erat Judaeis. Doraina taraen semper tenebat caput ipsius in gremio suo, quod sibi reservavit aptandum, et Magdalena pedes. Cum ergo venerunt ad crura prope pedes, dicit Magdalena: Rogo vos, ut permittatis me aptare pedes, apud quos sum misericordiam consecuta. Quibus permittentibus, illa pedes ipsos tenebat. Videbatur deficere pree doIsa. , L, 6.

lorC;, et quos alias lacrymis compuuctionis rigavit, nunc multo magis undis lacrymarum doloris et compassionis largiter lavit. Aspiciebat pedes sic vulneratos, perforatos, desiccatos et sanguinatos: amarissime multum flebat. Nam, ut Veritas de ipsa perhibuit testimonium ^ dilexit multum; et ideo flevit multum, et maxime in hoc ultimo obsequio Magistri et Domini sui, sic afilicti, sic flagellati, sic vulnerati, sic mortui, et in nihilum sic redacti. Vix cor sibi in corpore stare poterat prse dolore: sed bene cogitari potest, quod si posset, libenter ad pedes Domini sui expirasset. Non videbat remedium doloris, nec consueverat ei in talibus obsequi. Novnm et ultimum est hoc obsequium, quod ei nunc praestat; et in hoc praestando amaricatur anima sua, quia non potest illud facere, ut vellet intime et deceret. Vellet enim totum corpus lavare, ungere et bene aptare; sed non est tempus et locus. Non enim poterat plus, non poterat aliud: facit quod potest.

Saltem pedes lavit cum lacrymis; tandem devote abstergit, amplexatur, deosculatur, involvit, et aplat fideliter, quantum melius novit et potest. Sic crgo aptato corpore, respiciunt ad Dominam, ut ipsa compleat, et omnes planctum recipiunt. Tunc ipsa videns quod ampUus difi^erre non potest, ponit vultum super faciem dulcissimi fiUi sui, et dicit: Fili mi, in gremio meo te mortuum teneo: durum est valde divortium mortis tuae; jucunda et delectabilis fuit inter nos conversatio, et sine querela et offensa fuimus inter alios, quamvis tu, dulcissime fili mi, ut nocens sis modo occisus. Fideliter, fili mi, servivi tibi, et tu mihi, sed in hac pugna tua dolorosa, nec Pater tibi auxihari voluit, nec ego potui. Tu teipsum dereliquisti propter amorem generis humani, quod redimere voluisti. Dura et nimis poenosa est ista redemptio, de qua gaudeo propter salutem hominum. Sed in tuis doloribus et morte tua muUum afQigor vehementer, quia scio quod nunquam peccasti, et sine causa tam amare occisus es morte tam turpissima. Modo ergo, fili mi, disjuncta est nostra societas^ et me a te nunc oportet separari.

Sepeliam ergo te ego mater tua mnestissima; sed postea quo ibo? Ubi etiam morabor, fili mi? Quomodo sinetevivere possim? Tecum ergo Hbentius sepelirer, ut ubicumque esses, ego simiUter essem tecum. Sed ex quo non possum corpore, sepeUar tamen mente; animam meam in tumulo sepeUam cum corpore tuo, eam Ubi dimitto, eara Ubi commendo. OfiU mi, quam anxiaest separatio ista! Et iterum, ex abundantia lacrymarum, muUo meUus lavit faciem filii, quam Magdalena pedes. Abstergit autem faciem ejus, et deosculans os et oculos ejus, in quodam sudario caput ipsum involvit, et diligenter aptavit.

Tandem iterum benedixit eum. Et tunc omnes adorantes eum flexis geoibus, et pedes ejus deosculantes, accipiunt et portant ad monumentum. Domina tenebat caput et scapulas, Magdalena pedes; reliqui vero stabant in medio. Erat prope locum crucifixionis sepulchrum, quantum est longitudo ecclesiae nostrae vel circa, in quo sepelierunt eum reverenter flexis genibus, et cura fletibus magnis, et singulUbus, et suspiriis crebris, et multis. Quo sepulto, Mater iterum benedixit, amplexatur eum, et stat super dilecto filio suo; sed elevantes eam, posuerunt magnum lapidem ad ostium monumenti. De hoc nionumento dicit Beda ^, quod For fuitdomus rotunda, de subjacente rupe excisa, *®^ tantae altitudinis, ut vix homo manu extenta culmen posset atUngere, introitum habens ab oriente: in parte vero aquilonari locus Dominici corporis de eadem petra factus est, septem pedes habens longitudinis

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.9.2;Matt.4.16;Luke.1.78-Luke.1.79 — The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in a land of deep shadow, light has shone. Matt.4.16 — And The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light, and for those sitting in the land and shadow of death, light has dawned. Luke.1.78 — because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from on high Luke.1.79 — to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
  2. ↩Ps.37.32;Acts.3.14;Jas.5.6 — The wicked one watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him. Acts.3.14 — But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked that a murderer be granted to you, Jas.5.6 — You have condemned—you have murdered—the righteous one. He does not resist you.
  3. ↩John.3.16;John.1.14 — For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
  4. ↩Isa.50.6 — I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting.
  5. ↩Luke.7.38 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
  6. ↩John.12.1-John.12.8;Luke.7.37-Luke.7.38 — Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. John.12.2 — So they made a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. John.12.3 — Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John.12.4 — But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who was about to betray him, said, John.12.5 — Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? John.12.6 — He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he held the money bag and used to steal what was put into it. John.12.7 — Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial." John.12.8 — The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Luke.7.37 — And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner, having learned that he was reclining in the house of the Pharisee, brought an alabaster flask of ointment Luke.7.38 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
  7. ↩Luke.7.38;John.12.3 — and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. John.12.3 — Then Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Latin 'occurras' (2sg fut. ind. act.) rendered as an imperative; the medieval form is ambiguous between future indicative and jussive/subjunctive sense. The context — a directive — favors the imperative reading.
  2. 2 ↩Several words in this sentence are corrupt or uncertain in the manuscript: 'velocitcr' (possibly 'velociter', swiftly), 'invicera' (possibly 'invicem', one another), 'tletu' (possibly 'fletu', weeping), 'lioram' (uncertain — possibly 'doloris' or another noun of grief). The translation follows the most plausible intended sense at each point.
  3. 3 ↩'fuithodie' is an uncertain manuscript form, likely 'fuit hodie' (has been there today). The translation follows this conjecture.
  4. 4 ↩'Quserit' is an uncertain reading, likely 'Quaerit' (asks). 'qua^' appears to be an abbreviation or corruption of 'quae' (which things). The translation follows the most plausible intended sense.
  5. 5 ↩The word 'Modns' in the source is an uncertain reading, possibly an abbreviation of modus; the translation assumes the intended sense is captured by 'manner' (modum) which follows.
  6. 6 ↩The source readings 'ieposi' and 'hristi' are uncertain; the translation assumes 'ieposi' refers to the sepulcher context and 'hristi' is an abbreviated form of 'Christi' (of Christ). The trailing 'a' after 'hristi' may be a scribal error.
  7. 7 ↩The word 'bgno' is an uncertain reading; the translation renders it as 'wood' based on context (the nail being fixed in the cross). Alternative readings are possible.
  8. 8 ↩The word 'totura' is an uncertain reading; the translation renders it as 'wholly' based on the apparent sense of the passage (the Lord accepts the act entirely).

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