In " Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell ," Denise Levertov, the great poet I associate with the peace movement, describes the Orthodox icon of the Resurrection. In the Orthodox tradition, there is no Limbo now, but there was that place of waiting between the beginning of humanity and Jesus’ resurrection—and in the icon’s image, Jesus is pulling Adam and Eve from the depths. Here is how Levertov describes it: Down through the tomb's inward arch He has shouldered out into Limbo to gather them, dazed, from dreamless slumber: the merciful dead, the prophets, the innocents just His own age and those unnumbered others waiting here unaware, in an endless void He is ending now, stooping to tug at their hands, to pull them from their sarcophagi, dazzled, almost unwilling. We are all stuck in one way or another, often because we don’t know how to move from where we are. Buddhist wisdom tells us to ask ourselves, gently, “Have I ever done this before?” and laugh at o...
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