In my endeavor to read all the books in the school library so that I can better assist the girls who are continually asking for recommendations, I took a handsome old hard cover off the shelf with the intriguing title The Blue Nile by Alan Moorhead. It is a history of that branch of the Nile that flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It was fascinating, but what struck me as appropos this Holy Week was the opening of the epilogue:
"It seems absurd that such momentous consequences [the ending of isolation of the Nile Valley] should come from three insignificant battles [abortive cavalry charges by the Mamelukes against Bonaparte, the Shaiqiya tribesmen against the Turks, and the Ethiopians against the British] -- hardly battles, merely a running of spearmen against modern guns. We are back at Jericho: the trumpets blow, the walls fall down and an age vanishes in an instant. But perhaps it is in the nature of history to declare itself through apparently small events; certainly such catastrophes as the mass killings on the Somme and at Passchendaele the First World War decided nothing."
It is strange how so often one small thing changes everything, even on the world stage. One man is executed in a backwater of the Roman Empire and the world is turned on its head. Here in Malawi, the liturgy of Passiontide is particularly moving, quite literally.
Most moving was the end of the procession where Fr. Constantine came. The women laid their chitenjis on the ground in front of him for him to walk on in persona Christi. These chitenjis were not just props, but the wrappers the women use on a daily basis. They really laid their garments down in the mud for him to walk across. I could not help but think that we in America would not do that. Someone might want to reenact Christ's entry to Jerusalem, but we would use props. Put my coat on the ground for someone to walk on, oh no!
There is a real rootedness of the people here that sees beyond the ritual action to the reality. I think we Americans get stuck at the symbolic, seeing only symbol. Here for the people, as for the Hebrews in the Bible anamnysis is part of their life. They are not just play acting. This is Jesus' triumph, and they are present there laying down their garments for Him to walk upon.
Good Friday there will be another procession. The stations of the cross will begin at the Anglican Church and go through the street to the Parish were we will finish with the liturgy of Good Friday.
In coming out of Lent into the joy of Easter, I want to remember that it is not necessarily by great large works that the world is changed, but each of us can truly make an impact by the seemingly insignificant act.