Lautsi: The Crucifix Case: A Victory for Europe ?

John Singer Sargent 1856 - 1925

Tyrolese Crucifix

1914

Aquarelle, graphite pencil, on manuscript paper

53.3 x 40 cm

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Some have hailed the decision of the Full Chamber of the European Convention of Human Rights in the Lautsi Case as a significant victory for the Chrsitian tradition in Europe.

Grégor Puppinck, the Director of the European Centre for Law and Justice writes:

"The [European Court of Human Rights] ruled by 15 votes to two that the presence of the crucifix in the classrooms of Italian public schools is in conformity with the European Convention of Human Rights.

This case signifies an end to the secularist tendencies of the Strasbourg Court and constitutes a shift in their approach. It reverses the previous decision unanimously adopted, which now seems like a historic error by the Court.

The Court correctly announced that Italian "regulations confer on the country's majority religion preponderant visibility in the school environment" but that "that is not in itself sufficient, however, to denote a process of indoctrination."

In other words, the Court ruled that “school curricula or provisions establishing the preponderance of the majority religion did not in themselves point to undue influence on the part of the State or attempted indoctrination."

The Court also highlighted the importance of respect for subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation which the States enjoy in religious matters....

The ECLJ [European Centre for Law and Justice] welcomes that the European Court has thus renounced the promotion of a radical conception of secularism. This decision is a victory for Europe, as Europe cannot be faithful to itself by marginalizing Christianity.

This decision is more of a victory for Europe than for the “crucifix”; Europe refuses to deny its own identity by rejecting the suppression of Christianity in the name of human rights.

In fact, the Court recognized that in countries with a Christian tradition, Christianity has a specific social legitimacy that is distinct from other philosophical and religious beliefs and justifies the adoption of a differential approach where necessary. It is because Italy is a country of Christian tradition that the Christian symbol can legitimately have a specific visible presence in society"

But one should not think that the battle is over. The Court in its judgment the Court specifically distinguished between the passive presence of symbols such as crucifixes and activities such as school prayer which the Court said represents a much more significant violation of Convention

"a crucifix on a wall is an essentially passive symbol and this point is of importance in the Court's view, particularly having regard to the principle of neutrality ... It cannot be deemed to have an influence on pupils comparable to that of didactic speech or participation in religious activities"

The Spiritual Testament of St Paul - according to St Luke

The Evangelist St Luke at his desk

From New Testament, Constantinople,

Mid-10th century

BL Add. MS 28815, ff. 76v-77

The British Library, London

El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) (1541–1614)

Saint Paul

1598 - 100

Oil on canvas

69.9 x 55.9 cm

Saint Louis Art Museum, St Louis

As well as writing The Gospel bearing his name, St Luke is traditionally regarded as the author of The Acts of the Apostles.

On March 10th of this year the Pope met with the priests of Rome and gave a bravura Lectio Divina on a passage in Chapter 20 of the Acts of the Apostles.

He spoke for an hour with only a few notes.

The passage he discussed was the "pastoral testament" of Saint Paul, his moving farewell address to the Christians of Ephesus and Miletus

Aware of difficulties at Ephesus and neighbouring areas, Paul called the presbyters together at Miletus, about thirty miles from Ephesus. Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia in Turkey

It is believed that Paul stopped by the Great Harbour Monument and sat on its steps.

In the passage from The Acts of the Apostles St Luke recounts the actual words of Paul. Some have suggested that at times Luke was a travelling companion of St Paul. Others have also commented that the passage has parallels with Luke 22: 14 -38 and 1 Thessalonians.

He also records words of Jesus not recorded elsewhere.

In the passage, St Paul reminds his audience of his dedication to the Gospel, speaks of what he is about to suffer for the Gospel, and admonishes them to guard the community against false prophets, sure to arise upon his departure.

Here is the passage in The Acts of the Apostles:

"When he met us in Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

15 We sailed away from there on the next day and reached a point off Chios, and a day later we reached Samos, and on the following day we arrived at Miletus. 16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus in order not to lose time in the province of Asia, for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if at all possible, for the day of Pentecost.

17 From Miletus he had the presbyters of the church at Ephesus summoned.

18 When they came to him, he addressed them, "You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, 20 and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes.

21 I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, 23 except that in one city after another the holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me.

24 Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the gospel of God's grace. 25 "But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again.

26 And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, 27 for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, 6 in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood.

29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. 30 And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.

33 I have never wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. 34 You know well that these very hands have served my needs and my companions. 35

In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

36 When he had finished speaking he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 They were all weeping loudly as they threw their arms around Paul and kissed him, 38 for they were deeply distressed that he had said that they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship"

Acts of the Apostles 20: 14 - 38

Here is part of the lectio by Pope Benedict which is in Sandro Magister

"Dear brothers, [...] we have heard the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (20:17-38) in which Saint Paul speaks to the presbyters of Ephesus, intentionally recounted by Saint Luke as the testament of the apostle, as a discourse destined not only for the presbyters of Ephesus, but for the presbyters of all time.

Saint Paul is speaking not only with those who were present in that place, he is really speaking with us. So let us try to understand a little of what he is saying to us, at this time. [...]

"I have served the Lord with all humility" (v. 19). "Humility" is a keyword of the Gospel, of the whole New Testament. [...] In the letter to the Philippians, Saint Paul reminds us that Christ, who was above all of us, was really divine in the glory of God, humbled himself, came down becoming man, accepting all the fragility of being human, going all the way to the ultimate obedience of the cross (2:5-8).

Humility does not mean false modesty – we are grateful for the gifts that the Lord has given to us – but indicates that we are aware that all we are able to do is a gift from God, it is given for the Kingdom of God. In this humility, in this not wanting to make an appearance, we work. We do not ask for praise, we do not want "to be seen," for us it is not a decisive criterion to think about what they will say about us in the newspapers or elsewhere, but what God says. This is true humility: not to appear before men, but to be under the gaze of God and work with humility for God, and so really to serve humanity and men as well.

"I have never drawn back from what could be helpful, for the sake of preaching to you and instructing you" (v. 20). Saint Paul returns to this point after a few sentences and says: "I have not drawn back from the duty of proclaiming to you all the will of God" (v. 27).

This is important: the apostle does not preach a Christianity "à la carte," according to his own tastes, he does not preach a Gospel according to his own favorite theological ideas; he does not draw back from the task of proclaiming all the will of God, even the inconvenient will, even the themes that personally are not very pleasing.

It is our mission to proclaim all the will of God, in its totality and ultimate simplicity. [...] And I think that the world of today is curious to know everything. [...] This curiosity should be ours as well: [...] truly to know all the will of God and to know how we can and should live, what is the path of our life.

So we should make known and understood – as much as we can – the content of the "Credo" of the Church, from the creation to the Lord's return, to the new world. Doctrine, the liturgy, morality, prayer – the four parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – indicate this totality of the will of God.

And it is also important not to lose ourselves in the details, not to create the idea that Christianity is an immense package of things to learn.

Ultimately it is simple: God has shown himself in Christ. Entering into this simplicity – I believe in God who showed himself in Christ and I want to see and realize his will – has content, and according to the situations, we can then enter into the details or not, but it is essential that above all the ultimate simplicity of the faith be made understood.

Believing in God as he has shown himself in Christ is also the inner richness of this faith, it gives the answers to our questions, including the answers that we do not like at first and are nonetheless the way of life, the true way. When we also enter into these things that we do not like so much, we can understand, we begin to understand that it really is the truth. And the truth is beautiful. The will of God is good, it is goodness itself.

The the apostle says: "I have preached in public and in homes, testifying to Jews and Greeks about conversion to God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 20-21). Here there is a summary of the essential: conversion to God, faith in Jesus. But let's stay for a moment with the word "conversion," which is the central word or one of the central words of the New Testament, [...] in Greek "metànoia," change of thinking, [...] meaning a real change in our view of reality.

Since we were born in original sin, for us reality is the things that we can touch, it is money, it is my position, it is the things of every day that we see on the news: this is reality. And spiritual things appear a bit behind reality. "Metànoia," change of thinking, means inverting this impression. Not material things, not money, not the edifice, not what I can have is the essential, is reality. The reality of realities is God. This invisible reality, apparently far from us, is reality.

To learn this, and thus to invert our thinking, to judge truly how the real that must orient everything is God, this is the word of God. This is the criterion, God, the criterion of everything I do. This really is conversion: if my concept of reality has changed, if my thinking has changed.

And this must then penetrate all the individual things of my life: in the judgment of every single thing to take as criterion what God says about this. This is the essential thing, not what I get now for myself, not the advantage or disadvantage that I will obtain, but the true reality, to orient ourselves to this reality.

We must precisely – it seems to me – during Lent, which is a journey of conversion, exercise anew every year this inversion of the concept of reality, namely that God is reality, Christ is reality and the criterion of my acting and of my thinking; to exercise this new orientation of our life."

Modern Church Architecture

Andrea Sacchi (1599-1667), Filippo Gagliardi (died in 1659) and Jan Miel (1599-1663)

Pope Urban VIII visits the Il Gesù church in Rome on 2 October 1639 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Jesuit order 1640/41

Oil on canvas

11 feet x 8 feet 2 inches

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome

The Gesù in Rome was conceived between 1568 and 1584 by Vignola (1507-1573), architect of the Farnese family who were patrons of the church, and completed by Giacomo Della Porta (1540-1602)

It lacked pictorial decoration in the nave and transept vaults and under the cupola until Father Gian Paolo Oliva, General of the Jesuit Order from 1661 to 1681, tackled the question

The above painting by Sacchi and others illustrates the appearance of the great Church in October 1639. Rome was not built in a day.

Sacchi worked for the Barberini Family in Rome and in particular Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the brother of the Pope. The Cardinal asked him to decorate the Gesù for the Centenary of the foundation of the Jesuits on 2 October 1639.

The Pope, Urban VIII, was Maffeo Barberini was educated by the Jesuits and was a great patron of the Jesuit Order. Sacchi put up a temporary decoration in the church and later painted with others the picture to commemorate the event.

The Gesù is a building whose importance for subsequent church architecture can hardly be exaggerated. It was the embodiment of the spirit of the Counter Reformation. Its design and decoration was copied for Catholic churches all over the world. For many its design and decoration became and is what a church should be.

Even before Vatican II, there was a movement to get away from this design and concept. Since Vatican II this trend towards Modernism and postModern design has increased and become the subject of much criticism. Often with good reason. See Modern Church Architecture - Italian style and Will you be assimilated ?

The blog The Last Papist Standing has highlighted a book by Moyra Doorly called No Place for God: The Denial of Transcendence in Modern Church Architecture and an interview with her in Ignatius Insight entitled Why Are There So Many Ugly Churches?

She made a number of interesting points:

"Ordinary Catholics must already be aware of the changes that have taken place in church architecture over recent decades. The architecture of Relativist space, like the universal model it embodies, is homogenous, directionless and value-free. A Relativist church building downplays or even denies the concept of sacred space, rejects linear forms, and is designed so that every part of it appears to be of equal importance. Outside it will resemble the local library or sports stadium, thereby proclaiming 'nothing special here'. Inside the people 'gather round' the plain and unadorned altar, having hardly noticed as they passed the Tabernacle, and the message is the same.

Once gathered, there is apparently nowhere 'beyond' to aim for because the circular or semi-circular liturgical space cannot suggest this possibility. The subjectivism of the Modern Age favours circular forms because in a Relativist universe there is no truth 'out there'. The denial of the transcendent vision is inherent in the form of the contemporary church building and the space it creates. This same blocking of the route to the transcendent is also the result of sanctuary re-orderings in traditional churches. ..."

"The modern age has witnessed the construction of the most banal and uninspiring churches in history. The attempt to create a church architecture that would meet the needs of the age has resulted in churches that are unfit for any age. Contemporary church buildings, as well as being the ugliest ever built, are also the emptiest.

Many atheists used to say that whatever they felt about religion, it was impossible not to admire church architecture. But now there is hardly a Catholic who can admire (modern) church architecture. Today's churches no longer point to a transcendent God, a God who inspires awe, reverence, and wonder. Today's churches are geared almost entirely to the celebration of the people who happen to be present because that is where God now is, within the worshipping community.

According to G. K. Chesterton, "Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the God within .... That Jones shall worship the God within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones." Men have always attempted to make magnificent and beautiful the buildings dedicated to the gods that are without. But when the god is within, what happens to the building? A glance at what passes for a church today reveals the answer, but the appearance is only a symptom. The underlying problem is that the contemporary church building is hardly a church it all. Instead it is more a temple to the spirit of the age.

When the liturgical revolution of the twentieth century deliberately shifted the focus of the Church's worship to God present in the people, this went hand in hand with a profound change in the idea of what a church is, how it functions, and the message it should proclaim. The modernizers claim, with justification, that church architecture has always responded to the needs of the times.

Over the centuries, the Church has adopted the stylistic and aesthetic ideas of the ages and fashioned her church buildings accordingly, thereby creating an architectural heritage that includes the wonders of the Romanesque, the Gothic, the Renaissance, and the Baroque. Accordingly, the claim is that the changes being undertaken today are simply the latest in a series of adaptations the Church has made to her buildings and liturgy. Future generations will look back on the churches of today with the same admiration we hold for the great churches of the past.

In fact what has been done to the church building in recent decades, and is still being done, is unprecedented in the history of the Church.

So radical is the break from tradition that the term "revolution" is barely adequate to describe what has happened. The later half of the twentieth century saw a lot of church buildings commissioned, designed, and constructed, the majority of them in the Modernist style, with its pared-down and stripped minimalism, its horror of ornament, and its rejection of narrative imagery in favor of the abstract. This was the predominant style of the twentieth century, and it could therefore be argued that today's baleful church buildings are simply the result of the Church having done what she has done for centuries, which is to embrace the architectural aesthetic of the age. Consequently, the merits, or lack of merits, of the Modernist style are merely a question of taste.

However, architecture is about more than appearances, and this is as true for the Modernist style as it is for any other. Of chief importance to the characteristics of any style of architecture are the spatial principles that determine them. The reason for this is that buildings, by their very nature, enclose space. There is no way around it. As soon as four walls are built and covered with a roof, space is enclosed. This is how buildings perform their function, which is basically to provide shelter and contain the activities carried on within them."

She makes a number of interesting points. But it should always be remembered that churches can develop over time. That is illustrated by Sacchi`s painting. All is not lost yet - provided the intelligence, the talent and the will are there.

The Last Judgment 2

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475 - 1564

Design for The Last Judgment

Pencil on paper

41.8 x 28.8 cm

Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475 - 1564

Design for The Last Judgment

Pencil on paper

34.5 x 29.1 cm

Musee Bonnat, Bayonne

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475 - 1564

Studies for the Last Judgement: a flying angel and other figures including one with arms crossed. (preparatory to the angel above the column in the group carrying the Instruments of the Passion in the top r.-hand side of the 'Last Judgement')1534

Hard, sharply pointed black chalk

40.4 x 27 cm

The British Museum, London

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475 - 1564

Studies for the Last Judgement:St Bartholomew in the 'Last Judgement'; the whole, nude figure to the front, omitting the head and the lower part of the the right leg

Black chalk

1534-1541

34.2 x 26.2 cm

The British Museum, London

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564),

The Last Judgment

1537 - 1541

Fresco

1370 x 1200 cm

The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

The project of the fresco of The Last Judgment was the idea of Pope Clement VII, the brother of Pope Leo X.

He was the Pope who was in office when Rome was pillaged in The Great Sack of Rome in 1527.

The Vatican and even The Sistine Chapel itself were not spared destruction. The Sistine Chapel was used as a stable. The tapestries by Raphael which hung there were stolen.

He commissioned Michelangelo to carry out the work shortly before his death on 25th September 1534

Why the theme of The Last Judgment ?

His Pontificate had been a disaster. In The Sack of Rome, he was imprisoned and had seen Rome sacked. Many of its people had been killed and many of the churches and treasures had been destroyed. His policy towards the Holy Roman Empire and England exacerbated the tensions of The Reformation.

Some people think that he wished to meditate on repentance. However some think that he had other ideas.

The successor of Clement VII, Paul III, affirmed the commission and ensured that Michelangelo completed it

When the fresco was unveiled for the first time, Pope Paul III fell to his knees in an act of reverent adoration,

Other more recent Popes have expressed their appreciation for the works by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

Blessed Pope John Paul II discussed the works in some detail.

On the unveiling of the restoration of the work in April 1994 he said:

"The frescoes that we contemplate here introduce us to the world of Revelation. The truths of our faith speak to us here from all sides. From them the human genius has drawn its inspiration, committing itself to portraying them in forms of unparalleled beauty.

This is why the Last Judgement above all awakens within us the keen desire to profess our faith in God, Creator of all things seen and unseen. And at the same time, it stimulates us to reassert our adherence to the risen Christ, who will come again on the Last Day as the supreme Judge of the living and the dead. Before this masterpiece we confess Christ, King of the ages, whose kingdom will have no end.

It is precisely this eternal Son to whom the Father has entrusted the cause of human redemption, who speaks to us in the dramatic setting of the Last Judgement.

We are in front of an extraordinary Christ. He is endowed with an ancient beauty that is somehow detached from the traditional pictorial model. In the great fresco he strikingly reveals the whole mystery of his glory linked to the Resurrection.

To be gathered here during the Easter Octave is extremely propitious. More especially we stand before the glory of Christ's humanity. In fact, he will return in his humanity to judge the living and the dead, penetrating the depths of the human conscience and revealing the power of his redemption.

For this reason we find his Mother, the "Alma socia Redemptoris' next to him. Christ in the history of humanity is the true cornerstone, of whom the Psalmist says: "the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Ps 117 [118]:22).

This stone therefore cannot be rejected. As the only Mediator between God and men, from the Sistine Chapel Christ expresses in himself the whole mystery of the visibility of the Invisible. ...

5. Did not Michelangelo draw precise conclusions from Christ's words: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father?".

He had the courage to admire this Father with his own eyes at the very moment when he offered his creating "fiat" and called the first man into existence. Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1:26). While the eternal Word is the invisible icon of the Father, the man Adam is his visible icon.

Michelangelo strove in every way to restore to Adam's presence his corporeity, the features of ancient beauty. With great daring he even transferred this visible and corporal beauty to the Creator himself. We are probably witnesses to an extraordinary piece of artistic audacity, since it is impossible to impose the likeness proper to man on the invisible God.

Would this not be blasphemy? It is difficult however, not to recognize in the visible and humanized Creator, God clad in infinite majesty. Indeed, as far as the image with its intrinsic limits permits, everything which could be expressed has been expressed here.

The majesty of the Creator, like that of the Judge, speaks of divine grandeur: a moving and univocal word just as, in a different way, the Pietà in St Peter's Basilica and the Moses in the Basilica of St Peter in Chains are univocal.

6. In the human expression of the divine mysteries is not the "kenosis" necessary as a consummation of what is corporeal and visible?

Such a consummation has forcefully entered the tradition of the Eastern Christian icons. The body is certainly the "kenosis" of God. In fact we read in St Paul that Christ "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" (Phil 2:7). If it is true that the body represents the kenosis of God and that in the artistic representation of the divine mysteries the great humility of the body must be expressed so that what is divine can be revealed, it is also true that God is the source of the integral beauty of the body.

It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: "The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame" (Gn 2:25).

The Sistine Chapel is precisely - if one may say so - the sanctuary of the theology of the human body. In witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male and female, it also expresses in a certain way, the hope of a world transfigured, the world inaugurated by the Risen Christ, and even before by Christ on Mount Tabor.

We know that the Transfiguration is one of the main sources of Eastern devotion; it is an eloquent book for mystics, just as for St Francis Christ crucified contemplated on the mountain of La Verna was an open book.

If we are dazzled as we contemplate the Last Judgement by its splendour and its terror, admiring on the one hand the glorified bodies and on the other those condemned to eternal damnation, we understand too that the whole composition is deeply penetrated by a unique light and by a single artistic logic: the light and the logic of faith that the Church proclaims, confessing: "We believe in one God... maker of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen".

On the basis of this logic in the context of the light that comes from God, the human body also keeps its splendour and its dignity. If it is removed from this dimension, it becomes in some way an object, which depreciates very easily, since only before the eyes of God can the human body remain naked and unclothed, and keep its splendour and its beauty intact."

In March 2003, shortly beore his death, he published "Roman Triptych, Meditations" a collection of poems. It was widely regarded as his spiritual Last Testament.

The “Roman Triptych” consists of eleven poems and is divided into three panels.

In the second panel (“Meditations on the Genesis. From the threshold of the Sistine Chapel - Meditazioni sulla Genesi. Dalla soglia della Cappella Sistina”), the Pope paused in contemplation when entering the Sistine Chapel.

Here, Michelangelo has succeeded in depicting the Word of God in the Genesis. The painter's work, with its “wealth of colours”, has been able to translate the stupour that dwells and exists in this extraordinary act of creation into a concrete vision.

In an intense passage, the Pope, with clarity and great calm, addressed the cardinals in the next conclave, hoping that they will be enlightened and guided by the light and transparency of Michelangelo's images

The threshold is the place where man awaits his encounter with God

Here is the translation from L`Osservatore Romano

"II. Meditations on the Book of Genesis at the Threshold of the Sistine Chapel

1. The first beholder

"In him we live and move and have our being", says Paul at the Areopagus in Athens—

Who is He?

He is like an ineffable space which embraces all.

He, the Creator,

embraces everything, summoning to

existence from nothing, not only from

the beginning, but always.

Everything endures continually becoming—

"In the beginning was the Word, and through Him all things were made".

The mystery of the beginning is born together with the Word and is revealed through the Word.

The Word—eternal vision and utterance.

He, who was creating, saw—"saw that it was good",

his seeing different from ours.

He—the first Beholder—

saw, finding in everything some trace

of his Being, his own fullness—

He saw: Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius—

Naked, transparent,

true, good and beautiful—

He saw in terms so different from ours.

Eternal vision and eternal utterance:

"In the beginning was the Word, and through Him all things were made",

all in which we live and move and have our being—

The Word, the marvellous eternal Word, as an invisible threshold

of all that has come into being, exists or will exist. As if the Word were the threshold.

The threshold of the Word, containing the invisible form of everything, divine and eternal —beyond this threshold everything begins to happen!

I stand at the entrance to the Sistine—

Perhaps all this could be said more simply

in the language of the "Book of Genesis".

But the Book awaits the image—

And rightly so. It was waiting for its Michelangelo.

The One who created "saw"—saw that "it was good".

"He saw", and so the Book awaited the fruit of "vision".

O all you who see, come—

I am calling you, all "beholders" in every age.

I am calling you, Michelangelo!

There is in the Vatican a chapel that awaits the harvest of your vision!

The vision awaited the image.

From when the Word became flesh, the vision is waiting.

We are standing at the threshold of the Book.

It is the Book of the origins—Genesis.

Here, in this chapel, Michelangelo penned it,

not with words, but with the richness

of piled-up colours.

We enter in order to read it again,

going from wonder to wonder.

So then, it is here—we look and recognize

the Beginning which emerged out of nothingness,

obedient to the creative Word.

Here it speaks from these walls.

But still more powerfully the End speaks.

Yes, the judgment is even more outspoken:

the judgment, the Final one.

This is the path that all must follow—

every one of us.

2. Image and likeness

"God created man in his image,

male and female he created them

and God saw that it was very good.

Naked they were and did not feel shame".

Was it possible?

Do not ask those who are contemporary, but ask Michelangelo

(and perhaps the contemporaries as well!?).

Ask the Sistine.

How much is said here, on these walls!

The beginning is invisible. Everything here points to it.

All this abundant visibility, released by human genius.

And the End too is invisible,

though here, traveller, your eyes are caught

by the vision of the Last Judgment.

How make the invisible visible,

how penetrate beyond the bounds of good and evil?

The Beginning and the End, invisible, pierce us from these walls.

4. Judgment

In the Sistine the artist painted the Judgment.

The Judgment dominates the whole interior.

Here, the invisible End becomes poignant visibility.

This End is also the summit of transparency—such is the path of all generations.

Non omnis moriar.

What is imperishable in me

now stands face to face with Him Who Is!

This is what fills the central wall of the Sistine profusion of colour.

Do you remember, Adam? At the beginning he asked you "where are you?".

And you replied: "I hid myself from You because I was naked".

"Who told you that you were naked?"….

"The woman whom you put here with me" gave me the fruit....

All those who populate the central wall of the Sistine painting

bear in themselves the heritage of that reply of yours!

Of that question and that response!

Such is the End of your path.

Epilogue

It is here, at the feet of this marvellous Sistine profusion of colour that the Cardinals gather—

a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.

They come right here.

And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision.

"In Him we live and move and have our being

Who is He?

Look, here the creating hand of the Almighty Ancient One, turned towards Adam....

In the beginning God created....

He, the all-seeing One....

The Sistine painting will then speak with the Word of the Lord:

Tu es Petrus—as Simon, the son of Jonah, heard.

"To you I will give the keys of the Kingdom".

Those to whom the care of the legacy of the keys has been entrusted

gather here, allowing themselves to be enfolded by the Sistine's colours,

by the vision left to us by Michelangelo—

so it was in August, and then in October of the memorable year of the two Conclaves,

and so it will be again, when the need arises

after my death.

Michelangelo's vision must then speak to them.

"Con-clave": a joint concern for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.

They will find themselves between the Beginning and the End,

between the Day of Creation and the Day of Judgment.

It is given to man once to die and after that the judgment!

A final clarity and light.

The clarity of the events—

The clarity of consciences—

It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them—

Do not forget: Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius.

You who see all—point to him!

He will point him out...."

By what turned out to be an ironic coincidence it was his very successor, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who presented the poems at the Vatican on 6th March 2003

He said:

"If you want to find the source, you have to go up, against the current". In the first verse of his meditation, he said: "The undulating wood slopes down"; woods and waters have shown a downward movement. His pursuit of the source, however, now obliges him to climb up, to move against the tide.

Next panels: the end and the beginning, vision of God

I consider that this is the key to the interpretation of the two following panels. Indeed, they guide us in the climb upward "against the current". The spiritual pilgrimage, accomplished in this text, leads towards the "Beginning". On arriving, the true surprise is that the "beginning" also reveals the "end".

Whoever knows the origin also sees the "where" and "why" of the entire movement of "being", which is becoming, and exactly in this way, also enduring: "Everything endures, continually becoming". The name of the source that the pilgrim discovers is above all the "Word", according to the first words of the Bible: "God said", which John took up and reformulated in an unmatched way in his Gospel. "In the beginning was the Word".

However, the true key word that sums up the pilgrimage in the second panel of the Triptych is not "Word", but rather vision and seeing. The Word has a face. The Word - the source - is a vision. Creation, the universe, comes from a vision.

And the human person comes from a vision. This key word therefore leads the Pope while he meditates on Michelangelo, to the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, that have become so dear to him.

In the images of the world, Michelangelo discerned the vision of God: he saw with the creative gaze of God, and, through this gaze, he reproduced on the wall, by means of daring frescoes, the original vision from which all reality derives.

In Michelangelo what helps us to rediscover the vision of God in the images of the world there seems to be realized in an exemplary way what all of us are destined to enjoy. The Pope says of Adam and Eve, who represent the human being in general, men and women: "So they too became sharers of that gaze...". Every human person is called to "recover that gaze". The way to the source is a path that leads to becoming seers: to learn from God how to see. Then the beginning and the end appear. Then the human person becomes just.

Epilogue to the second panel: Last Judgement, conclaves

The beginning and the end - probably for the Pope, a pilgrim journeying inwards and upwards - the link between them appeared obvious there in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo presents to us the images of the beginning and the end, the vision of Creation and the impressive depiction of the Last Judgement. The contemplation of the Last Judgement in the epilogue of the second panel, is perhaps the part of the Triptych that moves the reader most. From the interior eyes of the Pope in a fresh way, there derives once again the memory of the conclaves of August and October 1978.

Since I was also present, I know well how we were exposed to those images in the hour of the important decisions, how they challenged us and how they instilled in our souls the greatness of our responsibility.

The Pope speaks to the Cardinals of the future conclave, "after my death", and says that Michelangelo's vision will speak to them. The word "con-clave" imposes the thought of the keys, of the patrimony of the keys handed to Peter.

To place these keys in the right hands: this is the immense responsibility of those days. Here we recall the words of Jesus to the lawyers, "Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge" (Lk 11,52). Michelangelo urges us not to take away the key, but to use it to open the door so that everyone may enter.

Second panel: Creation, dialogue in God

However, let us return to the true centre of the second panel, a look at the "origins". What do people see there? In Michelangelo's work the Creator appears "in the likeness of a human being": the image and likeness of the human person with God is so contrasted that we can deduce from it the humanity of God, that makes it possible to represent the Creator.

However, the way of looking that Christ has opened for us directs our gaze far beyond this and shows, by contrast, starting with the Creator, with the beginnings, who the human person really is. The Creator - the beginning - is not, as might appear in Michelangelo's painting, simply the "Almighty Ancient One". Instead, he is "a communion of persons, a mutual exchange...".

If, at first, we saw God beginning with man, we now learn to see the human person starting with God: a reciprocal gift of self - the human person is destined for this - if he manages to find the way to achieve this, he is a mirror of the essence of God, and so reveals the link between the beginning and the end."

The Last Judgment

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564),

The Last Judgment

1537 - 1541

Fresco

1370 x 1200 cm

The Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

On the altar or West wall of the Sistine Chapel, three hundred and ninety one figures make up the fresco known as the Last Judgment, a complex and over powering work. Incapable of being taken in one viewing, the first effect of the work is awe and incomprehension. One is overwhelmed by the scale of the work and the sheer number of charaters and happenings depicted in it.

Michelangelo commented 'How many people will go crazy over my masterpiece!` How right he was.

The work is a challenge to everyone who gazes or engages with it.

It was meant to be and is an epic work: the artistic equivalent of The Divine Comedy

The actual execution of the work took four years. However its gestation and its conceptualisation took much longer. There were many designs for the work prior to the final one decided upon by the great master.

There are a number of themes and many motifs.

As it is now Lent when we are to prepare for Easter, it is appropriate to concentrate on the one main theme of the work: The Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection of the Body. According to St Paul in First Corinthians, the two are inextricably linked.

The Vatican Museums briefly summarises Michelangelo`s work

"[The work] is centred around the dominant figure of Christ, captured in the moment preceding that when the verdict of the Last Judgement is uttered (Matthew 25:31-46). ... Next to Christ is the Virgin, who turns her head in a gesture of resignation: in fact she can no longer intervene in the decision, but only await the result of the Judgement. The Saints and the Elect, arranged around Christ and the Virgin, also anxiously await the verdict."

Amongst the saints are the martyrs holding the instruments of their martyrdom. At their feet are the patron saints of Rome:: Saint Bartholomew holding the flayed skin of a Michelangelo and Saint Lawrence with his grill. One cannot fail to notice Saint Peter with his keys. To the right of Christ are Adam and Eve , Esau and Jacob reconciled and other martyrs. On the left of Christ are St John the Baptist and the Apostles.

It is the moment immediately prior to the delivering of Judgment. This moment had a special significance in the teaching of St Paul. The final work of Christ is about to be accomplished. Death is to be finally and totally destroyed. God will be "all in all". In First Corinthians (vv 22 - 28) St Paul wrote:

"22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. "

The circular positioning of the figures around Christ and the Virgin and the way the figure of Christ is depicted show that this is a dynamic scene, full of action and movement. The figure of Christ is central. He is not portrayed as a static figure with a beard. There is a new depiction of Christ. It is the figure of a body transformed, transfigured and resurrected. The figure is quite regal and imperial. Christ seems to be seated on some sort of throne surrounded by his Court. He is motivated by anger and determination. He does not seem to be a particularly gentle or merciful figure.

The bodies of all those raised have resurrected bodies. In First Corinthians, St Paul explains (verses 35 - 44):

"35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

But the fresco depicts the moment before the final change. There is yet more change to occur:

Again St Paul in First Corinthians writes:

"50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Most scholars now accept that one of the key works of Scripture underlying the central piece of The Last Judgment is Chapter 15 of St Paul`s First Epistle to the Corinthians ("the Resurrection Chapter")

The chapter deals with the resurrection of Jesus Christ 15:1-11; the certainty of resurrection 15:12-34; the resurrection body 15:35-49; and the assurance of victory over death 15:50-58

This chapter has been called 'the earliest Christian doctrinal essay,' and it is the only part of the letter which deals directly with doctrine

St Paul wished to address a problem that had arisen in the Church of Corinth: some in the church had adopted a belief concerning the resurrection that was contrary to apostolic teaching. They believed that there is no resurrection of the dead although most of them did believe in the actual physical resurrection o Jesus.

It is worth quoting the chapter in full:

"1 Corinthians 15

The Resurrection of Christ

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

The Resurrection Body

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

The first eleven verses of the Chapter are the earliest account of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the New Testament. (about Easter, AD 57).

Verses 3 to 7 comprise an ancient Creed:

"3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles"

Some scholars have dated this creed to the decade after the death of Christ and used in the Jerusalem Church.

It should not be forgotten that Michelangelo`s work is the main work above the altar in the Sistine Chapel, the Pope`s private chapel in the Vatican. It is probably one of the most important altars in the Roman Catholic world where the successor of Peter would celebrate Mass and offer up the Eucharist and where the successors of the Apostles, the Cardinals would gather in consistory and also to elect successors of Peter.

The Resurrection of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead are the basis of Christian faith, the confirmation of all Christ`s actings and teachings, the confirmation of all Christ`s teaching, the confirmation and revelation of Christ as Divine, the Incarnation, the Son of God made Man, the centre of faith and the faith of the Church and the teaching and preaching of the Church.

Pope John Paul II in a series of audiences lectured on The Resurrection of Christ at length. Many of his talks concentrate on Pauline teaching especially on Chapter 15 of First Corinthians. Here is one of his talks entitled The Resurrection is the High Point of Revelation (8th March 1989):

"In St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians, several times quoted during the course of these reflections on Christ's resurrection, we read: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Cor 15:14).

Evidently St. Paul saw the resurrection as the basis of the Christian faith. He saw it as the keystone of the entire edifice of doctrine and life built up on revelation, inasmuch as it is the definitive confirmation of the whole ensemble of truth taught by Christ.

Hence all the Church's preaching, from apostolic times down the centuries and spanning the generations even to the present day, makes its appeal to the resurrection. It draws from it its driving and persuasive force and its vigor. It is easy to understand why.

The resurrection was first of all the confirmation of all that Christ had "done and taught."

It was the divine seal stamped on his words and life. He himself had indicated to his disciples and adversaries this definitive sign of his truth. On the first Easter the angel told the women at the empty tomb: "He has risen as he said" (Mt 28:6). If this word and promise of his are revealed as true, then all his other words and promises possess the power of truth that does not pass away, as he himself had proclaimed: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mt 24:35; cf. Mk 13:31; Lk 21:33). No stronger, more decisive and more authoritative proof than the resurrection from the dead could have been imagined or asked for. All the truths, including those most impenetrable to the human mind, find their justification, even from the rational point of view, in the fact that the risen Christ gave the definitive proof, promised beforehand, of his divine authority.

Thus the truth of Christ's divinity itself is confirmed by the resurrection.

Jesus had said: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I Am" (Jn 8:28). Those who heard these words wanted to stone Jesus, because for the Jews the words "I Am" were the equivalent of the unspeakable name of God. In fact, when asking Pilate to condemn Jesus to death, they presented as the principal charge that he had "made himself the Son of God" (Jn 19:7). For this reason the Sanhedrin had condemned him as guilty of blasphemy. In reply to the high priest's question, Jesus had declared that he was the Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mt 26:63-65; Mk 14:62; Lk 22:70), that is to say, not merely the earthly Messiah as understood and awaited by Jewish tradition, but the Messiah-Lord announced by Psalm 110 (cf. Mt 22:41 ff.), the mysterious personage perceived by Daniel (cf. 7:13-14). This was the great blasphemy and the charge for the death sentence: that he had proclaimed himself the Son of God! Jesus' resurrection confirms the truth of his divine identity, and justifies the self-attribution of the "name" of God which he made before the Pasch: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am" (Jn 8:58). For the Jews this was a claim punishable by stoning (cf. Lev 24:16). "They took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple" (Jn 8:59). If they had not then been able to stone him, they later succeeded in "lifting him up" on the cross. The resurrection of the crucified proved that he was really I Am, the Son of God.

In actual fact, Jesus, while calling himself Son of Man, had not only asserted that he was truly the Son of God. But in the upper room, before the passion, he had also prayed the Father to reveal that the Christ-Son of Man was his eternal Son: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you" (Jn 17:1). "Glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made" (Jn 17:5). The paschal mystery was the answer to this prayer, the confirmation of Christ's divine sonship, and indeed his glorification with that glory which he "had with the Father before the world was made": the glory of the Son of God.

According to John's Gospel Jesus, in the prepashcal period, had on several occasions alluded to this future glory which would be manifested in his death and resurrection. Only after the event did the disciples understand the meaning of those words of his.

Thus we read that during his first Pasch at Jerusalem, after having driven the merchants and money-changers out of the temple, Jesus replied to the Jews who had asked him for a sign of his authority for doing as he had done: "'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up....' But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken" (Jn 2:19-22).

Moreover, Jesus' reply to those sent by the sisters of Lazarus who besought him to come to visit their brother who was ill, referred to the paschal events: "This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it" (Jn 11:4).

It was not merely the glory which he could acquire from the miracle, all the more so since it would have been a contributory cause of his death (cf. Jn 11:46-54). His real glorification would have come precisely from his being raised up on the cross (cf. Jn 12:32). The disciples had a clear understanding of all this after the resurrection.

Particularly interesting is St. Paul's teaching on the value of the resurrection as the determinant element of his Christological concept, linked also to his personal experience of the risen one.

Thus at the beginning of his Letter to the Romans he writes: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the Gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1:1-4).

This means that from the very first moment of his human conception and birth (descended from David), Jesus was the eternal Son of God become Son of Man. In the resurrection this divine sonship was manifested in all its fullness through the power of God. God restored Jesus to life by the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:11) and constituted him in the glorious state of kyrios (cf. Phil 2:9-11; Rom 14:9; Acts 2:36). Jesus merited under a new, messianic title the recognition, worship and glory of the eternal name of Son of God (cf. Acts 13:33; Heb 1:1-5; 5:5).

Paul had expounded this same doctrine in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia on the sabbath day. At the invitation of the leaders of the synagogue, he spoke to announce that as the high point of the economy of salvation, effected between the lights and shadows of the history of Israel, God had raised up Jesus from the dead. For many days Jesus had appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem and these were now his witnesses to the people. "And we," the Apostle concluded, "bring you the good news that what God promised to our fathers, he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm: 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'"(Acts 13:32-34: cf. Ps 2:7).

For Paul there is an assimilation of ideas between the glory of Christ's resurrection and Christ's eternal divine sonship, which is fully revealed in that victorious conclusion of his messianic mission.

Paul's personal experience of the Lord

This glory of kyrios manifests that power of the risen one (Man-God) whom Paul had known by personal experience at the moment of his conversion on the road to Damascus. Then he too heard himself called to be an apostle (though not one of the Twelve), inasmuch as he was an eye-witness of the living Christ.

Paul received from him the power to face all the toil and bear all the suffering of his mission. Paul's spirit was so marked by that experience that in his teaching and witness he gave precedence to the idea of the power of the risen one over that of sharing in Christ's sufferings, which was also dear to him.

That which he had verified in his personal experience he proposed to the faithful as a rule of thought and a norm of life:

"Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him...so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Phil 3:8-11).

At this point his thought turned to his experience on the road to Damascus: "...because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (Phil 3:12).

As appears from the texts quoted, Christ's resurrection is closely connected with the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. It is its fulfillment, according to God's eternal plan.

Rather, it is the supreme crowning of all that Jesus had revealed and wrought throughout his whole life, from his birth to his passion and death, by his deeds, miracles, teaching, example of perfect holiness and above all by his transfiguration. He had never revealed directly the glory which he had with the Father "before the world was made" (Jn 17:5), but he concealed this glory in his humanity until the definitive emptying of himself (cf. Phil 2:7-8) through his death on the cross.

The resurrection reveals the fact that "in Christ the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily" (Col 1:19).

Thus the resurrection completes the manifestation of the content of the Incarnation. It can therefore be said that it is also the fullness of revelation. It stands therefore, as we have said, at the center of the Christian faith and of the Church's preaching."

See also

Pope John Paul II General Audience: The Resurrection is a Historical Event that Transcends History (1st March 1989)

Pope John Paul II General Audience: The Saving Power of the Resurrection (15th March 1989)

Pope John Paul II General Audience The Resurrection of the Body (8th August 1990)

Pope Benedict XVI Urbi et Orbi Message (Easter 2009)

Pope Benedict XVI General Audience Wednesday 15th April 2009