Chorus of the Furies: Bless us, for we have sinned.
Mother Mary: The Lord be in your hearts and upon your lips that you may truly and humbly confess your sins: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Chorus: We confess to Almighty God, to his Church, and to you, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed, in things done and left undone; especially our rage at injustice, our indignation at every affront to beauty, our hatred of every lie which has led us—terrifying, revered, finite beings—to be merciless vendors of death. It is the only way we know how to punish the vicious and to steel the lukewarm in virtue. We never started the cycles of death, only punished them. Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to gain favor in the Trojan War—to kill the Trojan armies—only to return home to be killed by his wife Clytemnestra in retribution for the sacrifice of Iphigenia; Apollo commanded their son, Orestes, to kill his mother—a grave offense on its own—which he obeyed. As such, we sought the death of Orestes.
We are spirits whose chthonic pursuits betrayed our triune mimicry. Athena once persuaded us to be defenders of justice in Athens, but our rage still boils within us. Our conversion occurred first by threats and subterfuge. O, to be worthy of the name Eumenides, the Gracious Ones! Will we earn the name ever by truth, rather than fear? Athena may threaten us into submission, but will we ever truly be givers of grace as our new name so suggests?
What grace can be given in court? What justice can be had with a democratic jury who was not there to witness these heinous acts? We did not understand Athena. The only difference we saw was judgment determined by strangers and judgment determined by witnesses. What grace is there in modern society? What are we really protecting? A more orderly death? A less efficient judgment? Or will the law in its moderation let our vengeful cycle to continue in secret?
Indeed, if we uphold justice, it will only be by the looming threat of Zeus’ lightning. The cycle of human death regulated only by a cognate cycle among the gods. Apollo “hast not only part in these ill things, But art chief cause and doer of the same.” Who could hope to charge or kill Zeus or his children, himself vicious ruler of the vicious and arbiter of all? Our desire to do these things betrayed the good we sought to preserve.
For these and all other sins which we cannot now remember, we are truly sorry. We pray God to have mercy on us. We firmly intend amendment of life, and we humbly beg forgiveness of God and his Church, and ask you for counsel, direction, and absolution.
Mother: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to be sacrificed for us to the Father, and who conferred power on his Church to forgive sins, absolve you through my ministry by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and restore you in the perfect peace of the Church. Amen.
The Lord has put away all your sins.
Chorus: Thanks be to God.
Mother: Abide in peace, and pray for me.
Chorus: Verily, we will pray for you.
Tisiphone the Fury: Grace cannot merely be abstinent from death, from retribution. It must be, above all, death’s total annulment. Death’s death can only come about by the resurrection of the beloved. But do we have this power? It seems not. Moreover, beloved by whom? By us? By the mourners? By a God greater than Zeus? We had resolved, therefore, that none were worth loving, to spare them the hopeless hope of resurrection. We have been most gracious, then, in our sleep—feared by man, scorned by the gods. But when we awake, we hope to be more gracious then we can hope. So it was written: “For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”
Alecto the Fury: We are unappeased by veneration and benediction; we seek only to right the wrong. We determine whose lives prosper and whose suffer. Our claim to desist from wrath was overshadowed by wrath under control, perfectly moderated. “Praise not, O man, the life beyond control, Nor that which bows unto a tyrant's sway. Know that the middle way Is dearest unto God, and they thereon who wend, They shall achieve the end.” But what moderation can be had in death? Are we not hand of the tyrant’s sway following a life beyond restraint? Judgment like ours has been the most extreme of moderations. But what justice can be called holy if not the justice of mercy? So it was written: “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
Megaera the Fury: Hitherto we are vexed by Fate, marked by our nocturnal birth. “Night, Mother Night, who brought me forth; a torment to living men and dead.” Is there any night dark enough to cleanse the soul? To transform a god such as us? Any night dark enough to silence wrath, even most moderate, and remove the sting of death? Shall my protection of Athens be also a hatred of foreigners? Shall I become like Samael, adversary of all Israel, Demiurge or Satan? On the other hand, does the pursuit and defense of the good require the pursuit of death? Why am I set as arbiter of the good in Athens but our justice cannot be served outside the city? Such order betrays our mother’s nature! But we have betrayed God in our pursuit of death as justice. So it was written: “For I have come to turn a daughter against her mother.”
Mother: Light has come to you who were once dark. Nyx brought you forth from her nocturnal womb, but my beloved son, Jesus Christ, is your mother now. I was there when he was born from my womb and I was there when he was crucified for the whole world. Where were you?
Chorus: Lo! We saw this man approaching from above. Was he a god? A new Heracles? Nay, this one was much greater: God Incarnate. Yes, we believe what we saw, but we do not fully understand it. Christ came to us in the underworld, having just died himself at the hands of Pontius Pilate. He ended our deadly ministry with one declaration: “I am the one, true God.” He remained there with us for three days, ministering to us and the other underworldly beings. Some protested, as we did initially, but he insisted that he would be taking souls with him upon his departure from death.
Most beloved is God Himself. He has come to humanity and marked them, their whole being, their whole world, as beloved. This God-man was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of him, our ministry is now greater, more merciful, than what Athena had assigned or could have imagined. We are now witnesses to grace.
Mother: By the grace of the triune and almighty God, you sisters will be made worthy of the name Eumenides, wherever you are and whenever you are remembered.
