Roots After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight. John 19:38-39
Representation Grieshaber's Pietà stands in cruel opposition to his crucifixion. The subdued and serene atmosphere of Christ's death mutates into a scene of bloody horror and shrill lamentation. Everything in this woodcut is monumental: the bodies, the revolt, the grief, and the strength of the mother. A peasant woman as to her physical appearance, she is in fact the mother of all mothers wrestling the remains of life from the tentacular arms of death. But Jesus has truly passed on; he is no longer present in this gruesome shell. What Mary fiercely embraces is not a corpse but the life divine she is carrying in her heart.
Identification Love is a multi-splendored thing, but never lame. Love is fierce in passion and dedication. Love professed and love kept silent - we don't know which one of them is burning most. Fierce in action and fierce in prayer, it never loses sight of the beloved; love likes life, and thus the struggle is fiercest when the light is dimming and the salt grows stale. I am no Mary, no Magna Mater, but I am not either a lame duck of love.
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