Rise up, rise up, humanity,
Take off the mask of death,
The pretense of supremacy,
Or take your own last breath.
You’ve suffered far immeasurably,
Despite the market’s high,
The main street of humanity
Your hearts objectify.
Don’t deify your pedigree
Of status, gold or power,
And to your soul as refugee
Don’t gasp your final hour.
Your savior said emphatically,
In losing life it’s found.
Do unto others, do unto me,
And life will but abound.
Of stifling masks at last be free
And end this foolish strife.
Rise up, rise up, humanity
And share the breath of life.
. Easter morning. In the far distance, as depicted in the bible, is the hill of Golgotha where the Savior suffered and died for our sins. The central cross, illuminated by the morning sun, clouds breaking to a blue sky, points to a new day of life. In the foreground, the light once again shines upon the steps down into the sepulcher. In this surrealistic depiction, the painting is framed by the tomb’s opening, from which we the viewer take in the scene.
. We see the biblical limestone slab with our Savior’s abandoned burial shroud. There too, in symbolic reflection of the suffering in our current world, we see a pandemic mask. But just as Jesus’ suffering brings our redemption, so too hopefully does the pandemic bring a spiritual awakening. We wear the mask to protect both ourselves and our neighbor, we witness the indiscriminate nature of illness and death – we peek thru a clearer window into our human commonality.