 |
| Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's. |
The work is offered on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum.
For EEKPTEE&EA.
👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596)
El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.
+ + +
- 89 -
Poore Agar from her phere enforc'd to flye,
Wandring in Barsabeian wildes alone, [530]
Doubting her child throgh helples drought would die,
Layd it aloofe, and set her downe to moane:
The heavens with prayers, her lap with teares she fild;
A mother's love in losse is hardly stild.
Poor Agar, Sarah's maid and Abraham’s consort, was forced to flee from him and his household. She wandered with her son Ismael in the wilderness of Bersabee, worried that the boy could not but die for want of water. Finally, she placed him under a tree and sat herself down at some distance away, crying out in grief. She filled Heaven with her prayers and her own lap with tears. A loving mother cannot easily be soothed and consoled for the loss of her child.
Note. Abram’s wife Sarai, having brought forth no children, urged Abram to take her Egyptian handmaid Agar to wife. Agar duly bore Abram a son, Ismael. Later, God appeared to Abram and, having spoken of circumcision, promised his wife Sarai would bear him a son and directed that their names were to be changed to Abraham and Sara. The promised son was born and called Isaac. Chapter xxi. of Genesis then continues as follows:
“And when Sara had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman, and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Abraham took this grievously for his son. And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed. So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Bersabee. And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there. And she went her way, and sat over against him a great way off as far as a bow can carry, for she said: I will not see the boy die: and sitting over against, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy: and an angel of God called to Agar from heaven, saying: What art thou doing, Agar? fear not: for God hath heard the voice of the boy, from the place wherein he is. Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand: for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink.” [Gen. xxi. 9-19]
529. phere. fere. A companion, comrade, mate, partner; whether male or female. A consort; spouse; a husband or wife. c1550 Adam Bell in J. Ritson Pieces Anc. Pop. Poetry (1791) 6 Two of them were single men, The third had a wedded fere.
flye. fly. To flee. 1594 Willobie his Auisa xlvii. f. 43v Nor flye the field though she deny.
530. Barsabeian wildes. The wilderness of Bersabee (Beersheba).
wildes. 1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice ii. vii. 41 The Hircanion deserts, and the vastie wildes Of wide Arabia.
531. helples. helpless. Admitting no remedy; that cannot be helped. 1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. vii. sig. G3v Such helplesse harmes yts better hidden keep.
drought. Probably here in the sense of thirst: Thirst. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. liii He called for drynke..one of hys chambrelaynes meruellynge, requyred the cause of hys drouth.
532. aloofe. To or at a distance from something; far off; separately, apart. a1554 J. Croke tr. Thirteen Psalms (1844) cii. 20 No frende draweth nere, I syt alowfe.
set. sat.
moane. Moan. v. intransitive. To lament, grieve, echoing mourn. 1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. G4 Let there bechaunce him pitifull mischances, To make him mone
534. hardly. Not easily or readily; with difficulty. 1582 Bible (Rheims) Luke xviii. 24 How hardly [Tyndale, Great, Geneva, with what difficulty] shal they that haue money enter into the kingdom of God?
stild. stilled. still. v. To quiet, calm. To relieve (pain); to assuage, allay. To keep back, repress, desist or refrain from (words, tears). To quiet, calm (a person's mind); to subdue (agitation, emotion). To lull, soothe (a child); to induce (a person) to cease from weeping. 1545 R. Ascham Toxophilus i. f. 11 Euen the little babes..are scarse so well stilled in suckyng theyr mothers pap, as in hearynge theyr mother syng.
+ + +
- 90 -
But Agar, now bequeath thy teares to me; [535]
Feares, not effects, did set aflote thine eies.
But, wretch, I feele more then was feard of thee;
Ah! not my sonne, my soule it is that dyes.
It dyes for drought, yet hath a spring in sight:
Worthie to dye, that would not live, and might. [540]
Agar, please share with me the tears which filled thine eyes, not so much because of something that had happened but because of thy fears for the life of thy son.
As for me, wretch that I am, the fear I feel seems greater than thine because it is not my son but my soul itself that is dying. It is dying from thirst and yet the remedy that would satisfy this thirst is close at hand [Christ, through contrition, confession, forgiveness and a renewal of sanctifying grace].
I deserve this spiritual death for my soul because I chose it in preference to the supernatural life I might have enjoyed.
535. bequeath. v. To transfer, hand over, make over, assign, deliver. a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) v. iii. 102 Bequeath to Death your numnesse. ?1594 M. Drayton Peirs Gaueston sig. Bv To you black spirits I my woes bequeath.
536. aflote. afloat. Overflowing, in flood; submerged in water, flooded; brimming with. 1563 T. Sackville Induction in Myrrour for Magistrates ii. f. cxviiv Her iyes swollen with flowing streames aflote.
eies. eyes. 1584 H. Llwyd & D. Powel Hist. Cambria 31 Let them belieue no more but what they see with their Eies.
537. then. than.
of thee. by thee.
539. drought. Probably here in the sense of thirst: Thirst. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. liii He called for drynke..one of hys chambrelaynes meruellynge, requyred the cause of hys drouth.
a spring. There are two possible senses here: 1. the drought refers to the absence of tears of contrition and the spring is the contrition which will supply this absence. 2. the soul is dying because it is thirsty and yet the remedy for this thirst is close at hand. Peter thirsts for the life-giving and life-sustaining water of divine grace. Cf. the story of the Samaritan woman at the well:
“There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.” [John iv. 7-15]
540. Worthie. Worthy. Deserving of blame, punishment, or misfortune. 1584 R. Scot Discouerie Witchcraft iii. xix. 71 Whereby it is inferred, that they are worthie to die.
+ + +
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
No comments:
Post a Comment