50 Days After

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Physical Space in Sacred Art

Originally guest posted at Fear Not Little Flock

When I look around in a beautiful church one of the things I notice as much as the artwork is where the artwork is placed. Placement of the artwork can mean as much as the content of the art. Big thick books could be written on this subject, but I don't have that attention span. Here are some examples of the use of space that many people may not realize.
For instance, the area around the altar will have images relating to sacrifice. My parish has icons of Abraham's almost sacrifice of Isaac and Abel's sacrifice of first fruits. St John the Baptist Cathedral in Savannah, GA has images that subtly refer to the events from the Last Supper up to the Resurrection. On the left is a chalice with a cross emerging from it and the story continues in images to the right until the Resurrection.

Traditionally, there is a higher ceiling above the altar with either artwork evoking the glory of God such as the Christ Pantocrator(on the right) or a painting of the sky. The idea is to use this space above the altar and on the ceiling to both lift the eye to the Heavens and the soul with it to God. It also evokes the idea of Heaven and Earth united during the Mass/Divine Liturgy, that the Most High God has revealed Himself to His Church and JesusChrist condescended to become a Man and the sacrifice of the God Man is continued on the altar below. I really enjoy the way that older, traditional Roman altars are tall, often with spires pointing upward towards the space above the altar.
Traditionally, churches have been built in a cruciform style. This crossing of the transept and the nave further emphasizes the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist. There is a church in Kaiserslautern, Germany where the apse for the altar is not aligned straight with the nave, but instead is about a 45 degree angle from the nave. According to local legend this is to resemble a the limp head of Jesus Christ as He hung dead upon the cross.

In Byzantine Churches it is traditional to have an iconostasis, a wall of icons between the nave and the Holy Space. This barrier is lifted at moments of Revelation such as Gospel readings when the Royal Doors in the center of the iconostasis are opened and this opening between the two emphasizes the connecting of the two through the mystery of the Incarnation.
Another example is when a patron saint is portrayed in a relevant area, like in Sacred Heart (a former Jesuit parish in Augusta, GA) a stained glass window of St Cecilia is in the choir loft next to the organ. Or when saints with something in common are portrayed together or near each other.
Sacred Heart, for instance, has five stained glass windows in the apse of the main altar. Directly behind the altar is Christ the High Priest. On his left is St Patrick and on his right is St John the Evangelist. On St Patrick's right is St Ignatius of Loyola and on St John's left is St Francis Xavier. So the space is used to portray that bishops (Sts. Patrick and John) have a share in Christ's priesthood and priests (Sts. Ignatius and Francis) share in their priesthood, but that Christ is source of the priesthood. He is shown above the altar with his arms outstretched in blessing, but when it was still a church there would have been a crucifix on the altar.
We are body and soul, which means that we have spiritual experiences through our sense of sight.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Friday, July 20, 2012

Why the Eucharist includes the Blood of Christ

I saw this question and the answer by an Eastern Orthodox apologetics site (we're in this together) and thought it was an excellent explanation:

I once asked a catholic priest how they could justify drinking Jesus's blood when the Law forbids it and Jesus Himself said that not one letter of the Law will pass away. He was unable to answer my question. I'm sure I'm misunderstanding something but I don't know what. Could you explain it to me?

ANSWER:

In order to answer your question, we must look first at Jesus' teaching concerning the Old Law. The Lord said:
(Matthew 5:17-18) "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Christ's "fulfillment" of the Law excludes both the idea that the Law is irrelevant, and also the idea that the Law remains exactly as is. Christ, through His incarnation, life, ministry, death, and resurrection, brings the Law to its complete purpose. In the broader context of this teaching, Jesus says things like this:
(Matthew 5:27-28) "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
(Matthew 5:38-39) "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
In other words, Christ is taking the underlying principle of the old Law and bringing it to a higher and more complete meaning. This is not abolition, but fulfillment. Indeed, the Gospel of St. Matthew is in many ways modeled after the Torah as set forth in the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy sets forth a series of conditional blessings (28:1-15) and curses (28:16-68) upon Israel based on their obedience or disobedience. It then ends with Moses ascending a mountain and being shown the inheritance of Israel. (34:1-4) Jesus' teachings in the Gospel of St. Matthew are arranged in a set of blessings and (the Beatitudes, 5:3-11) curses (his debate with the Pharisees, 23:13-32.) It then ends with Jesus ascending a Mountain and telling His Apostles to go and make the entire Earth the kingdom of God. (28:16-20)
My point in saying all of this is to drive home the idea that "fulfillment" is not equivalent to changelessness. It means that things change, but they change in the way that they were always intended to. The Torah of Moses only foreshadowed the Torah that the Messiah would bring. The principles which underlie the old Torah are made explicit and applied to the heart.
Having understood that the old Torah is not abolished, but brought to completion in the work of the Messiah, let us examine the relevant text:
(Leviticus 17:12-14) Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. "Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
The reason that the ancient Israelites were not allowed to eat the blood of their sacrifices was because they were not to participate in the actual life-force of the animals, which is contained in the blood. As strange as it might first sound, the reason that Christians in the New Covenant partake of the blood of Jesus' sacrifice is the same reason that the Israelites were forbidden to eat the blood of their sacrifices. While it is not good to participate in animal life, we are supposed to participate in the life of Christ. Consider what St. Paul the Apostle writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:
(1 Corinthians 10:16-18) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
St. Paul points to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Covenant sacrificial system, He says that we "participate" in the blood of Christ, and significantly, He points to this as a fulfillment of the fact that the Israelites would eat their sacrifices. The "fulfillment" of the Old Law by Christ actually means that we must partake of Christ's blood, because where the Israelites did not want to participate in the life of their animal sacrifices, to participate in the life of Christ is the thing we want above all.
Hope this helps.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog