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The Michelangelo Code

[2009-07-04]
[Engleză]
The glory of God and the liturgy, a mysterious fresco, a important announcement in the year 2000, a visit to the Apostolic Palace, the Galileo case, and a Roman hail-storm

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

========================

'The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is the vision of God.' —St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 4, 20, 7

========================

I had a conversation today having to do with the essence of this pontificate, and with the essence of the great battle of our times.

The statement of St. Irenaeus (above), writing in France (Gaul) during the Roman Empire in about 180 A.D., is an astonishing statement

And it is a statement very dear to Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI (photo); he has cited it often.

It is a statement which in just a handful of words sets forth the essential, profoundly beautiful, dignity of man.

In an age when human dignity is under seemingly relentless attack, this statement is powerful and important.

It is so important that if I were never to write another word, it would be sufficient that I cite these words of Irenaeus, and that readers meditate on their meaning, for me to accomplish, at least in embryo, the true purpose of all this writing.

=========================

How can 'the glory of God' be 'the living man'?

Isn't God's glory something far above man?

Isn't it almost a blasphemy to say that 'God's glory' is 'the living man'?

It sounds very humanistic.

It doesn't seem to respect the holiness of God, the transcendence of God.

Could Irenaeus have been wrong?

And why, then, has the Pope cited these words so often?

=========================

Let's read the words again: 'The glory of God is man alive; but the life of man is the vision of God.'

Irenaeus tells us that the 'life of man' is 'the vision of God.'

Wait a minute...

If the essential life of man is 'the vision of God' — the beatific vision, actually seeing God — that means that man is not truly alive unless he sees God.

And this means that man cannot be 'the glory of God' unless he has seen God, and having seen him, become truly alive.

==========================

Stated in this way, it doesn't seem quite so blasphemous to say that 'The glory of God is man alive.'

Because the 'man alive' is living, is truly alive, only because he has 'seen' God, and, in seeing God, has in some way been touched by God's own divinity.

So the glory is still all God's, not man's.

It isn't a humanistic statement after all.

It is not man by himself who is the glory of God, but man in the presence of God, man seeing God.

Man seeing God, and becoming truly alive through this seeing, is God's glory.

That's what Irenaeus was trying to say.

And that is what Pope Benedict has been preaching, month after month, year after year.

==========================

But there remains a problem.

I'm sorry to have to bring this up.

Because, as Jesus himself told us, 'No man has ever seen God: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' (John 1:18)

Do you see the problem?

This is a bit worrisome.

If no man has ever seen God, then no man has become truly alive, and there is... no one to be 'the glory of God'!

And we know that even Moses, who was so close to God, who spoke with God, did not see God's face: 'But He said, 'You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!' Then the LORD said, 'Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.'' (Exodus 33:20-23)

Again, God says: 'No man can see me and live.'

But Irenaeus said: 'The life of man is the vision of God.'

Houston, we have problem!

In order to truly become alive, and be 'God's glory,' a man needs to see God, to have a vision of God.

Yet no man, seeing God, can live.

==============================

And now I am getting close to my point.

I will call it 'The Michelangelo Code.'

I call it the Michelangelo Code to distinguish it from the 'Da Vinci Code,' which seems to have been what we in Italy call a work of 'depistaggio' — literally, 'sending off the track.' A work, that is, of disinformation. A 'cover story' in the face of a serious problem invented to send everyone who hears it off on the entirely wrong track, leaving the true story uninvestigated.

This is classic.

The truth is hidden in the Michelangelo (photo) frescoes in the Pauline Chapel — the chapel that was just restored during eight years of hard work by a team of Vatican Museum restoration experts... and where Pope Benedict ordered the altar, which Paul VI had moved in the 1970s, to be moved back where it originally was...

===============================

Pope Benedict XVI has always been deeply concerned about the liturgy — the way the Church carries out her public worship.

He has written numerous books about the liturgy, spoken repeatedly about it, taken important decisions about it as Pope (for example, restoring the celebration of the Mass according to the old, pre-Vatican II rite).

Concern for the liturgy is a constant in his life.

But why this interest? Is it because he is concerned about the external things of the liturgy, like vestments, incense, all the gestures of religious ritual?

No.

Or at least, not primarily.

Then why? What is the primary interest?

His primary interest in the liturgy stems from the fact that the liturgy is a type of doorway, or passageway, leading to the vision of God, that is, leading to eternal life.

And since eternal life is the ultimate hope of man, the doorway or passageway that leads to that hope — the liturgy — is of the utmost importance.

This does not mean that external things likes vestments, incense, and ritual gestures, are of no importance.

No.

But it does mean that they are of just relative importance.

They adorn the doorway; they are not the doorway itself.

The adornments of the doorway are not as important as the reality of the doorway itself.

'Man becomes glory for God, puts God, so to speak, into the light (and that is what worship is), when he lives by looking toward God,' Joseph Ratzinger wrote in his great book on the liturgy (The Spirit of the Liturgy, Ignatius Press, 2000, p. 20)

The liturgy, Ratzinger writes, is 'a kind of anticipation, a rehearsal, a prelude for the life to come, for eternal life, which St. Augustine describes, by contrast with life in this world, as a fabric woven, no longer of exigency and need, but of the freedom of generosity and gift.' (The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 14)

In his past writing, Ratzinger saw the question of the liturgy, of the right worship of God, as ultimately leading us to the central question of human history: What is mankind's purpose? Where is mankind going? How can we avoid false turns and get to our right goal?

Writing about Israel, the Chosen People, and their exodus from Egypt, and the covenant with God on Mt. Sinai, Ratzinger said:

'We must not forget that there is an essential connection between the three orders of worship (Note: i.e., true liturgy), law, and ethics.

'Law without foundation in morality becomes injustice. (Note: There are many laws today which are not just, but have been legislated, against morality.)

'When morality and law do not originate in a God-ward perspective, they degrade man, because they rob him of his highest measure and his highest capacity, deprive him of any vision of the infinite and eternal....

'When human affairs are so ordered that there is no recognition of God, there is a belittling of man. That is why, in the final analysis, worship and law cannot be completely separated from each other.'

He added: 'God has a right to a response from man, to man himself, and where that right of God totally disappears, the order of law among men is dissolved, because there is no cornerstone to keep the whole structure together.'

And he then added (referring specifically to the history of the Jewish people in the Old Testament, and the Babylonian Captivity of the nation, but metaphorically also to the Gentiles):

'Whenever Israel falls away from the right worship of God, when she turns away from God to the false gods (the powers and values of this world), her freedom, too, collapses.

'It is possible for her to live in her own land and yet still be as she was in Egypt.

'Mere possession of your own land and state does not give you freedom; in fact, it can be the most base kind of slavery.

'And when the loss of law becomes total, it ends in the loss even of the land.'

========================================

On June 27, 2000, in Rome, the La Repubblica newspaper, one of Italy's leading dailies, had two headlines on its front page, one on the left side, one on the right.

One said 'the secret of man' had been revealed, referring to the cracking of the human genetic code, which had been announced the previous day in London. The underlying idea was that, by examining and charting the entire DNA code of a human being, man had come to understand the 'secret' of his nature and destiny. One sensed that the hope was that the cracking of this 'code' might even lead to extended life-spans, human beings living for centuries, or even longer...

The other headline said 'the secret of God' had been revealed, referring to the Third Secret of Fatima, which had been announced by the Vatican, also the previous day.

========================================

I had an important meeting in the Vatican at noon today, so I could not attend a very interesting press conference on the Galileo case (photo) — the great example, for many in the modern world, of the inevitable 'conflict' between 'faith' and 'science.'

The press conference was for the presentation of a new edition of a book containing all of the documents. The book was presented by its author, Bishop Sergio Pagano, the Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives since 1997 (he was also my teacher for one year, when I studied paleography — the word means 'ancient writing' — with him in the late 1980s).

(For a more complete report, see: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0903027.htm)

===================================

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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