An Oblate at Christmas

Madonna, Sacro Speco, Subiaco, Italy (Photo by Edith OSB)

It has taken me a long time to get beyond my secular scientific mindset and its prejudices so that I can begin to understand and appreciate medieval religious art in which the Madonna is depicted with saints who lived hundreds of years later or much before.   Not until I think of kairos time and the Communion of Saints do I begin to understand.

Our guide at Sacro Speco told us that this fresco depicted St. Benedict with the Madonna, but I think he was wrong. (He was a young college student who had not been there long).  The large tau-T-cross on the cloak and the t-shaped staff are symbols of the Franciscans.  The saint on the left seems to be John the Baptist with animal skins tied around his waist.

The image invites us into Christmas in a different way.  John, the grown man, and this centuries-later saint simply stand and behold the wonder: a Virgin bore a child, and God came to dwell among us.  The fresco invites us to stand with them, to ponder and reverence the immensity of this mystery: God entering into the midst of the world as a small child.

The Church celebrates Christmas for 8 days, an octave.  There is wisdom in this.  On the festival day itself, families gather, people are busy, and there is much hubbub.  But as the Octave unfolds, take time to step away, like these saints, to gaze on the Virgin and her Child.  Accept the invitation to be with them in the stable, in flight to Egypt, in their home in Nazareth.  The fresco gathers us into the Mystery, across all time and space, of Emmanuel, God-With-Us.

Related articles

• Back to Benedict (gkupsidedown.blogspot.com)
• Silent Night Holy Night: A Vatican Christmas (vinoconvistablog.me)

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