After the death of Jesus

Publish date 31-08-2022

by Chiara Dal Corso

Here is a splendid example of a liturgical icon (one of the two sides of a double-sided icon) belonging to the Novgorod tablets, from the 15th century. A masterpiece that lends itself to meditation and prayer, made with precise respect for the iconographic models and mastery typical of the great Novgorod iconographic school.

This table collects four scenes, narrated in the Gospels, after the death of Jesus. When it seems all over. When it got dark all over the earth. And right now, that the rabbi has been killed, his apostles fled, it begins to make itself clear in the hearts of those who stood under the cross. Starting with the centurion and those who had just mistreated, insulted, nailed him, here is the intuition: "He was truly the son of God." In death Jesus works: he shows the truth, converts hearts, begins his action of salvation. These four icons tell us just that.

In the first we see Joseph of Arimathea, an illustrious member of the Sanhedrin, a powerful man, known and esteemed by all in Jerusalem, who goes to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. He risks being recognized as his friend and therefore suffer the same fate. But out of love he uses his influence to be able to bury the body of Jesus in his tomb and give him the honors due, avoiding him the dishonor of the common grave. Together with him also Nicodemus, Pharisee and doctor of the law, who until then had followed Jesus only in secret, now comes forward and puts the of him.

Thus in the second scene we see them at Golgotha, where, together with the young apostle, Mary the mother and the weeping women, they are around the corpse of Jesus to bring him down from the cross. In silence, in a harmony of gestures, looks, movements: next to the arched body of Jesus, a position that indicates great pain, the mother is upright, standing, like a column, and represents the backbone for the future Church, that is born right here. She kisses him, with pain and adoration, the men support him and remove the nails, the women cry around him, touching his hands. A movement of glances, of pained tenderness that reveals the great love with which these people turn to the body of Jesus. And with which they perform all these gestures, in an intimacy that they had not previously been able to express, perhaps they had not managed the mother) not even to discover within oneself. In the icon, everything has a symbolic value: they tell us how in front of the dead Jesus, these are gestures that the creature finally performs freely for its creator, without asking him for anything, sincere gestures and pure love.

The same silent and sorrowful harmony is found in the third panel, where, all oriented towards him, arranged in standing rows and bent over his stretched body, weep for him, after having honored him according to the duties required for the corpses. The Mother is the only one who kisses him: she not only cries but she adores the body of her son, already aware of the secret of life and salvation contained in her death. Mary Magdalene weeps with her arms raised, a desperate gesture of those who have lost love and are powerless in the face of death. All around the composed tears of the others, in gestures of astonished pain or bent over in the act of asking for forgiveness, in the name of all. Yes, because these characters take on a universal value, they portray the whole of humanity mourning the death of the Son of God. The icon is prayer, it is liturgy. And everyone's prayer is made. Men, women, rich and poor, old and young, saints and sinners, wise and simple, weep, adore and ask for forgiveness around the death of Jesus. They cry and allow their hearts to open to grace, which through pain renews them and prepares them for new life.

And this new life that never dies is announced in the wonder and in the silence of the fourth picture, where the empty tomb and the presence of the angel reveal to the three women the miracle of miracles, the resurrection. Only those who mourned the death of Jesus will discover the joy of his resurrection.


Chiara Dal Corso
NP April 2022

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