Crosses of the Empty Space or of the Absence

Is Something Missing?

Do Not Worry!

Happy are those who feel there is Something missing in their lives,

Or in themselves,

Yes, blessed are they,

For they shall receive life,

And life to the full!

 

The Cross of the ‘Empty Space’

As it was made in 2008,

Mwanza, Tanzania.

           Let’s imagine for a moment a horses’ drawn carriage. Within the carriage, we can not see much of what is happening outside. But we may all feel that the road is chaotic. Soon, the carriage is drawn down to a slope with dangerous curves. One of the passengers then decides to approach the place where is the coach sitting in order to ask him something, probably to slow down. But to his great surprise, there is no coach that he can see. Instead, there is just an empty place. Yet he is not panicked, only a little scared or anxious but he discovers telling himself: ‘Here I am, guided by somebody who is absent to me. This one who is absent, it is Jesus.’ He also hears the challenge which is then addressed to him in his heart: ‘Here is your reality, do you choose it? Are you ready?’

           Perhaps this is the reality this cross attempts to express. It is a large and thick wooden cross. It has been carved, but instead of carving some Jesus’ shape directed towards the outside, as it usually is the case with traditional crucifixes, the carving of Jesus is made from within the inside of the wood. The wood is at the image of some feet which could have left their marks on the sand. It represents from within the shape of Jesus. Jesus was on the cross but he is no longer there. It is an empty cross, a powerful symbol of the resurrection, to be associated of course with the empty tomb.

          I shared this second image with a nun working in my area, as well as my desire to see the carving of an ‘empty cross’ or more exactly of the ‘emptied cross’ or ‘the cross of the empty space’. Without telling me, she gave order to a local artist so to consequently propose it to me. Yes, that was a great surprise!. Here is the cross in front of my eyes and it does not leave me indifferent. Some ideas and emotions, which were till then rather vague are taking shape. Here is something which speaks in my heart. I suspect something deeply carved in my soul, for reasons that I can almost guess, so much so that a soul or a personality forges itself through events of its past and history.

Absence as Quality of Faith

Who is Jesus for me today? I guess I could approach an answer around the notion of absence. Jesus is this absent who however absent is he, still guides me. This absent one, this is the one I choose for guide.

          ‘You believe because you can see me, happy are those who have not seen and yet believe’ (John, 20:29). These words of Jesus to Thomas the disciple do make a distinction between two different kinds of beliefs: belief within the seeing of the desired object and belief without it. My experience recalls naturally the latter one which I guess we are most of us more familiar with: belief while ‘not seeing’ the object of belief, that is Jesus. There is a distinction made within the quality of belief, according to the nature of the relationship and of the perception of the subject towards its object. Within faith without seeing, the subject does not possess its object in the same way than it is the case within the activity of seeing.

          The Absence of Jesus

          But the heart of the assent which is mine in faith is not an idea, a concept, a theory but a person. Jesus is this eternal absent who yet engages my whole life. Unlikely paradox: how to engage one’s whole life for somebody ‘who is not’, or perhaps ‘no longer is’ or ‘not yet is’. There is the feeling of a deep emptiness around which everything else rotates, or at least attempts to do so. Amazingly enough was not the Holy of Holies of the ancient people not already an empty space?

           Our modern world has so loudly and carelessly proclaimed the ‘death of God’ that we start witnessing, even among most devout followers of Christ, the deep suffering of his felt absence. This is now taking vivid expressions throughout crosses of the ‘empty places’ that we may find in different geographical areas, including the Holy Land and Poland.

While contemplating these crosses, how can we not to think about the words once heard at the empty tomb: ‘here is the place where he was but he is no longer here: do not worry.’ (Mark 16:6) These words provoked faith among a handful of people which soon would be the cause of a great fire transforming the whole known world of the times.

Perhaps these newly made crosses have just the same power!

 

An Olive Wood Cross as Found in the Holy Land, 2010  

 

A Cross in Pine Wood as Found in Zakopane, Poland, 2010