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The Catholic New World
The Cardinal's Column
December 4, 2005

Picturing the mysteries of faith

Last week I went down to Daley Plaza and blessed a Christmas crib. The history of Nativity scenes goes back to the Church of St. Mary Major in Rome, which guards a relic of what is believed to be the manger in which Christ was placed when he was born in Bethlehem. When the relic is brought out at Christmas Mass, it is placed among statues recreating the scene described in the Gospel according to St. Luke read at Midnight Mass on Christmas.

In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi was so impressed by this presentation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, that he asked a friend to build something similar in the town of Greccio, where St. Francis often preached. He wanted Greccio, in Umbria in central Italy, to become a “new Bethlehem,” a place where the humanity of Christ would be welcomed and worshiped.

The Christmas crib in Daley Plaza is put together each year by a group of volunteers who call themselves the “God Squad.” They were formed in 1985, when the City of Chicago would no longer put a Christmas crib in the lobby of City Hall. The group, headed then by William Grutzmacher and an African-American minister, the late Rev. Hiram C. Crawford, had to go to court to establish its right to put a crib in Daley Plaza, but they did so and won the suit. Each year, the group, now headed by Jim Finnegan and Terry Hodges, takes responsibility for erecting this representation of the Incarnation of the Son of God, this picture in wood and statuary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Picturing the mysteries of faith began even before the Church won her right to a public life at the end of the persecutions in the fourth century. Even in the catacombs, there are representations of the cross; there are various symbols of Christ; there are pictures of the Virgin Mary. But when the Church could gather publicly, coming out from catacombs and the basements of private houses, she built churches with statues and pictures, especially in mosaic. The earliest Christian mosaics, of Christ the Good Shepherd and the Virgin Mary, of the three Kings in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, of various martyrs and apostles, are as naturalistic in style as were the other decorations in Roman buildings. But Christians knew the difference between an idol and a holy picture.

In the Eastern Roman Empire, however, a movement against portraying the mysteries of faith in icons began in 726 and continued until 842. Even though the Byzantine Emperors were Christian, they persecuted and sometimes martyred those who continued to make and venerate representations of Christ and the saints. During this time of official iconoclasm, many monks left Constantinople to take refuge in Rome; and they brought with them the more formal and hieratic fashion of “writing” sacred pictures that had developed in the East. This splendid and spiritual icon style then influenced the more naturalistic paintings and mosaics of Rome itself until the beginnings of the Renaissance in the 15th century.

Those who were persecuted for venerating icons defended themselves against the iconoclastic Emperors by appealing to the mystery of the Incarnation. If the Eternal Word can become flesh, why can’t believers picture that flesh which gives us life? St. John of Damascus wrote beautifully in defense of the veneration of images, and Pope Gregory III condemned iconoclasm in 731. A new form of iconoclasm began centuries later with the Protestant Reformation, when many statues were destroyed and images defaced or painted over, so that only words and not pictures could portray the mysteries of faith.

Iconoclasm not only betrays the Incarnation; it also removes divine revelation from history and roots faith uniquely in personal contemporary experience. The removal of sacred images from many contemporary Catholic Churches removes from our view the witnesses to Christ through the ages and encourages us to recognize the Lord only in those actually gathered in the Church on any given occasion. This is an ideology incompatible with the apostolic faith.

A book that gives a good sense of the history of sacred art and architecture in the Archdiocese of Chicago has just been published by Liturgy Training Publications. It is entitled, “The Heavenly City,” and was written by Prof. Dennis McNamara of the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary. Its striking color photographs illustrate a text that presents and explains many of the most beautiful Churches of the Archdiocese. (“The Heavenly City” was reviewed in The Catholic New World, Nov. 20.)

The book is witness to a faith that uses sculpture, painting, stained glass and many forms of craftsmanship to create buildings where God is worshiped in sacraments that themselves use visible elements to make present the now invisible actions of the risen Christ. These Churches express a Catholic culture, faithful to its many roots in Europe and given new expression in an American voice. In 1939, when he dedicated St. Francis Xavier Church in Wilmette, Cardinal Mundelein said of the new Church, “It is the place where the living presence of the Godhead dwells; it is the grand audience chamber where the God Made Flesh and Dwelt among us is here constantly.” “Heavenly City” reflects that belief in showing how the mysteries of faith are pictured in Chicago Catholic Churches.

Worshiping in those Churches at Christmas time, many mothers brought their children to the Christmas crib in or near the sanctuary to visit the baby Jesus. I hope that custom continues, just as I hope for a new birth of Christian iconography at the service of our faith in the Word made Flesh. May you have a Blessed Advent.


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Dec. 4-17,
2005
Sunday, Nov. 20: 9:30 a.m., Sunday Mass, St. Sylvester Parish; 2:30 p.m., 150th Anniversary Mass, Founding of the Felician Sisters, Queen of All Saints Basilica

Monday, Nov. 21: 11 a.m., 100th Anniversary Mass St. Bernard Hospital 5 p.m., Capital for Kids Benefit, The Capital Grille

Tuesday, Nov. 22: 1 p.m., Administrative Council Meeting, Pastoral Center; 5:30 p.m., Big Shoulders Fund Thanksgiving Reception, Residence

Friday, Nov. 25: 7 p.m., Mass, St. Mary, Buffalo Grove

Saturday, Nov. 26: 11 a.m., Blessing Nativity Scene, Daley Plaza

Sunday, Nov. 27: 11 a.m., Mass, St. Mary of the Assumption; 5 p.m., Mass, Angel Guardian Croatian Catholic Mission

Monday, Nov. 28: 11 a.m., Mass and Dedication, Franciscan Sisters of Chicago St. Joseph Village; 2 p.m., Finance Council Meeting, Catholic Charities

Tuesday, Nov. 29: 10:30 a.m., Great Lakes Naval Station visit

Wednesday, Nov. 30: 9 a.m., Mass, Presbyteral Council, Mundelein; 7 p.m., Keynote Address, Ministry Seminar, Mundelein Seminary

Friday, Dec. 2: 10:15 a.m., Priests’ Placement Board, Pastoral Center; noon, Quigley Law Association Lunch; 5:30 p.m., Casa Jesús Reception, Residence

Saturday, Dec. 3: 9 a.m., Advent Day of Recollection for Theologians, Chicago Cenacle






His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George announces the following appointment:

Pastors

Rev. Edward Fialkowski,
from pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Parish, Niles, to be the pastor of Our Lady of the Wayside Parish, Arlington Heights, effective Nov. 1.

Administrator

Rev. Peter J. Cyscon,
from pastor of St. Odilo Parish, Berwyn, to be administrator of the same, effective immediately.

Dean

Rev. James E. Flynn,
to be the dean of Deanery VI-B while retaining his duties as pastor of Holy Name of Mary Parish, South Loomis, effective immediately.


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