In The Arms Of The Angel

It was said in Jerusalem lies a pool called Bethesda. During the era of the Kings, the pool was used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the temple. This use of the pool gave the water a halo of sanctity, and many invalids came to the pool to be healed.


The Angel of the Waters was said to occasionally visit the pool to stir its waters. The first person who enters the pool right after the angel “troubles” the waters will be healed of whatever disease he has. It is for this reason that the blind, the lame, the paralyzed and the sick are all waiting for the occasional, surprise stirring of the pool’s waters.

As Jesus walked among the sick at Bethesda, he passed before a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and who had no one to put him first into the pool when the waters were troubled. Christ pitied this neglected man and said to him, “Take up your pallet and walk.” Obediently, without even reaching the angel-troubled waters, he took up his stretcher and walked.

Have you missed the angel’s splash?

Just recently, I have finished watching HBO’s Angels in America (I know it’s too late, sorry) and it was soooo good! Magnificent, spectacular, breathtaking, moving, poignant, enlightening are just few words that I could say about this once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. Watching it is definitely one of the best-spent 6 hours of my life.

Adapted from two award winning Kushner stage plays, Angels is an arresting portrayal of the fight against AIDS and for (religious, sexual, ethnic, cultural, political) tolerance, shown through the loves and losses of all-too-human characters, in a climate of national hysteria. But it is also far more, setting the story of the early years of AIDS in the much larger context of American culture itself.

Angels in America broadcasts a message of love and loss, hope, healing, and tolerance—not only for those affected by AIDS, but for all of us. As Prior says at the end, “We aren't going away. We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.”

It just . . . It just . . . We can't just stop. We're not rocks—progress, migration, motion is . . . modernity. It's animate, it's what living things do. We desire. Even if all we desire is stillness, it's still desire for. Even if we go faster than we should. We can't wait. And wait for what? God. . .

He isn't coming back.

And as tagged by McRey, Dazed, and other fellow bloggers, here’s my desktop image:



I’m tagging everyone who hasn’t done it yet.

And oh, "and when love is dead,
I’m loving angels instead."

Have a great weekend everyone!

Angel of the Waters of Bethesda story here and here. Angels In America reviews here, here and here. Images from www.thecityreview.com and hbo.com.