WHAT ENDURED IS NOT ERASED
Photo by Wiki Sinaloa on Unsplash.
An original hymn and tune by Caralynn Hampson
When I imagine Mary anointing Jesus in John 12, I imagine her inviting Jesus to remember what her family had endured when Lazarus was sick and died. I imagine that Mary used leftover oil from her brother’s burial and that the smell wafted through the house reminding everyone of what had happened prior to Lazurus being raised from the dead. Traumatic experiences do not completely fade away even if there is resolution. Easter Sunday does not revoke the trauma and grief of Good Friday. What endured is not erased.
Christian Fascism harms and hurts through the enforcement of patriarchal ideals. Resistance involves naming each harm and imagining ways of existing beyond the demands of Christian Fascism—resisting as Rizpah did by mourning her sons even when the state tried to treat them as garbage; living like Ruth and Naomi and creating connections beyond a nuclear family. Resistance means refusing to accept the ideals of Christian Fascism as normative.
Through our memories and our actions, we can resist the notion that the ideals promoted by Christian Fascism are the correct way of living. We can grieve those who have been killed, and we can care for and protect those who Christian Fascism tries to depict as disposable. Healing is an act of continual creation and not a reversion to what once was. While Christian Fascism tries to recreate a past that never existed, we can remember the traumas we have endured and envision liberation for all.
What Endured Is Not Erased
Fragrant spices fill the air,
remind us that death we share.
Blessings ease the pain we face,
what endured is not erased.
Spirit witness death filled earth,
tether us to grief's rebirth.
We will mourn all tragedy
til all creatures are set free.
Rizpah's cries are echoed here.
Mark all graves with loving tears.
Abel's death we must recall,
hoping for new life for all.
May we love as widows,
challenging the status quo.
Where you go, there I'll go too.
Where you stay, I'll stay with you.
Meter: 7.7.7.7
