Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself.

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Here’s a wonderful sonnet from Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.
Prayer
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
(from Mean Time [Anvil, 1994])

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Quest for Joy-6 Raphael, The School of Athens.

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Raphael, The School of Athens



Nothing prepares you for the impact of this magnificent fresco which takes up a whole wall . We gazed at it both yesterday and today. 


In the foreground is Michaelangelo in this famous boots leaning on a marble block. 



 Michelangelo controlled strict access to his unfinished work in theSistine Chapel, but Raphael Sanzio was secretly allowed to glimpse the wondrous paintings there contemporaneously in progress with his own. Overwhelmed, Raphael then returned to remove a section of painted fresco, and replaced it with the figure of Michelangelo lounging on his block.  


And here’s Raphael himself in a black beret.







It’s a splendid light-filled tribute to one of the greatest periods in human history!!  Plato and Aristotle debate; there’s Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid and Diogenes.

A bearded Socrates.




We were pleased to visit Rome in the off-season in which we could stand and gaze at it, in relative peace and quiet for as long as we wished!

Quest for Joy-5: Michaelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.

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We spent today with the art which we came to Rome to see. I have been to the Sistine Chapel before in 1986, but the frescoes have been cleaned in the last few years, and the whole thing was a whole lot less crowded and more tourist friendly. What a gargantuan museum! The guidebook warned that one gets footsore just getting to the Sistine Chapel through what feels like many museum miles–and that, unfortunately, was true.


The Sistine Chapel, 300 figures illustrating the pre-history and history of salvation, was painted over 54 years, single-handedly by Michaelangelo, lying on his back.


It was an instance of an artist being forced to produce by a patron.Pope Julius II believed Michelangelo could do anything and ordered him to decorate the ceiling of the chapel. “But I’m not a painter,” Michelangelo protested, “I’m a sculptor.  I’ve hardly done anything with a brush and you want me to paint 2000 square feet on a curved ceiling!” 

“You’ll do a great job,” said Julius. “I’ll have my architect Bramante set up the scaffolding for you.”  1   ‘He will paint it or he will hang!’ he is recorded to have muttered.

Pope Julius II, who was desperate to see it done, only lived for a few months after its conclusion. He is supposed to have constantly asked Michaelangelo during the 54 months  that he laboured on it,  ‘When you will make an end of it?’ and the answer was invariably the same: ‘When I’m finished!’  Finally, he ordered Michaelangelo to remove the scaffold and show the half-finished painting to his guests–who, predictably, were as overwhelmed as we are today.


And here is Michaelangelo’s caricature of himself painting the Sistine chapel ceiling

Michaelangelo, never one to do things by half-measures, came up with a grand design of 300 figures representing the pre-history of Salvation. 






What a glorious soaring conception!


God creates the world in a titanic burst of energy



Extends power to a quiescent Adam 







The temptation of Eve is surprisingly modern 





And the most amazing of all is Michaelangelo’s conception of the Lamb become a Lion, Christ at the Last Judgment, in radiant power. 


Christ is the flesh was powerful, a man’s man. He could walk miles in a day,  get a crowd of 15,000 to move, carry his cross after a scourging which killed weaker men. He was a manual worker, after all. Michaelangelo has captured this aspect of Christ.









And here is the whole of it.


 


Michaelangelo even includes a self-portrait of himself as an exhausted looking Jeremiah



Michaelangelo’s last recorded words, to his apprentice were, ” Work, Antonio, work, and do not waste time.”


Michaelangelo’s love was sculpture, and the project into which he had poured his heart, the tomb of  Julius II, was left unfinished because of the commissions and machinations of various popes.


See short post on Michaelangelo’s Moses http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-in-rome-michaelangelos-moses-and.html 
                                                                          * * *


My kids were not thrilled with me, because as I left, I said, “Work, Zoe, work, and do not waste time. Work, Irene, work, and do not waste time.”


And to myself, I said, predictably, “Work, Anita, work, and do not waste time.”
                                                                      * * *


When I last visited Rome, in 1986, I loved the poet Keats, and probably knew everything he had written “by heart.” 


Keats was terrified that he might die before he had written down all the books that were in his mind.
I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain, 


he wrote, presciently.


And he was right. He did die very young, and asked for this epitaph, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” I visited his grave on my last Roman pilgrimage.



                                                                         * * *  


And what does one do with these fears that one may never write all the books which are in one’s head?


Surrender yourself to God again. Your life is in your hands. Everything you might ever do or have or make is only by his grace. 


Ask him for grace and time to write the books you really want to write. 


Pray, 


“My life is in your hands,
My love for you will grow, my God
Your light in me will shine.”


From a hymn I used to love when I was 17. Carey Landry.


 

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Should we pay taxes? Matthew 17, Blog through the Bible Project

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Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time

 22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

The Temple Tax

 24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
   When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked.
Jesus frequently asks this question in Matthew’s Gospel. Note the Socratic teaching method Jesus employs. He does not just tell Peter the answer. He asks a question.
“From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
 26 “From others,” Peter answered.
   “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.
The children of the King are exempt from taxes, Jesus seems to say?? 
ESV note–Jesus signals that with the coming of the Kingdom, believers are no longer under OT law, but the law of Christ.
27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
But we should pay them so that we may not cause offense
And if you pay them, so as not to cause offence, money to pay them will be provided by the Lord.
NIV note. Jesus did not want to let an inconsequential matter provide an obstacle to faith in him on the part of the Jews.

The Brothers Become Brothers, Gen. 44, Day 54, Feb 23, Blog Through the Bible Project.

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Peter Von Cornelius

People do grow and change. In the process of maturation is hope for our world.

Genesis 44

A Silver Cup in a Sack

 1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
Joseph is human, after all. Is he exacting a tiny bit of revenge here?
 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 
Fulfilling his dream.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
He is testing his brothers to see if they have become brothers.
 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
The brothers have grown, they have matured. They are now men of conscience and kindness. Judah, in particular, shows why his tribe was Israel’s preeminent tribe, and why he was chosen to be an ancestor of the Messiah.
Conscience-stricken over the grief the selling of Joseph brought Jacob, Judah offers himself in stead of Benjamin–as centuries later, Jesus will offer himself as a willing victim in our stead. Judah’s character has significantly changed from the man who suggested selling Joseph into slavery, uncaring of the emotional effect this would have on Jacob.

Should we pay taxes? Matthew 17, Blog through the Bible Project

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Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time

 22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

The Temple Tax

 24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
   When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked.
Jesus frequently asks this question in Matthew’s Gospel. Note the Socratic teaching method Jesus employs. He does not just tell Peter the answer. He asks a question.
“From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
 26 “From others,” Peter answered.
   “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.
The children of the King are exempt from taxes, Jesus seems to say?? 
ESV note–Jesus signals that with the coming of the Kingdom, believers are no longer under OT law, but the law of Christ.
27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
But we should pay them so that we may not cause offense
And if you pay them, so as not to cause offence, money to pay them will be provided by the Lord.
NIV note. Jesus did not want to let an inconsequential matter provide an obstacle to faith in him on the part of the Jews.

The Brothers Become Brothers, Gen. 44, Day 54, Feb 23, Blog Through the Bible Project.

Peter Von Cornelius

People do grow and change. In the process of maturation is hope for our world.

Genesis 44

A Silver Cup in a Sack

 1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
Joseph is human, after all. Is he exacting a tiny bit of revenge here?
 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 
Fulfilling his dream.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
He is testing his brothers to see if they have become brothers.
 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
The brothers have grown, they have matured. They are now men of conscience and kindness. Judah, in particular, shows why his tribe was Israel’s preeminent tribe, and why he was chosen to be an ancestor of the Messiah.
Conscience-stricken over the grief the selling of Joseph brought Jacob, Judah offers himself in stead of Benjamin–as centuries later, Jesus will offer himself as a willing victim in our stead. Judah’s character has significantly changed from the man who suggested selling Joseph into slavery, uncaring of the emotional effect this would have on Jacob.


The Lord is my Shield. Psalm 18, Day 53, Feb 22, Blog Through the Bible Project

Psalm 18

 For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

 1 I love you, LORD, my strength.

The opening verses sum up the theme of the Psalms, that David has found the Lord a reliable defender against his enemies.
 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
   my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
David describes the protection to be found in God in many images–God is his rock, on which he is firmly grounded, a fortress or stronghold of protection, a shield, a deliverer.
NIV. 
Rock, a common poetic metaphor for God was particularly appropriate to David’s experience for the Lord was his true security.
 3 I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
   and I have been saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death entangled me;
   the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
   the snares of death confronted me.
 6 In my distress I called to the LORD;
   I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
   my cry came before him, into his ears.
7 The earth trembled and quaked,
   and the foundations of the mountains shook;
   they trembled because he was angry.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
   consuming fire came from his mouth,
   burning coals blazed out of it.
9 He parted the heavens and came down;
   dark clouds were under his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
   he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
   the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12 Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
   with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13 The LORD thundered from heaven;
   the voice of the Most High resounded.d]”>[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
   with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
15 The valleys of the sea were exposed
   and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, LORD,
   at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
The turning point for David, as for many of God’s people through the ages was this: In this distress, he called to the Lord. And the Lord comes to his assistance, in a fearsome theophany
 16 He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
   he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
   from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
   but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
   he rescued me because he delighted in me.
God’s unexpected protection that astounds you when you experience it. 
The opposite of being hemmed in by threats and dangers.

 20 The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
   according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
   I am not guilty of turning from my God.
22 All his laws are before me;
   I have not turned away from his decrees.
23 I have been blameless before him
   and have kept myself from sin.
24 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
   according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
This is generally the way God deals with his people.
 25 To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
   to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
   but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27 You save the humble
   but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
This eventually proves true.
28 You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
God helps David’s life and undertakings to flourish.
   my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop;
   with my God I can scale a wall.
How can we know this is true? We act with the confidence that God is with us. And if what we are doing is the right thing, in accordance with his will, then, of course, he is.
 30 As for God, his way is perfect:
   The LORD’s word is flawless;
   he shields all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the LORD?
   And who is the Rock except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength
   and keeps my way secure.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
   he causes me to stand on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for battle;
   my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You make your saving help my shield,
   and your right hand sustains me;
   your help has made me great.
36 You provide a broad path for my feet,
   so that my ankles do not give way.
Having had a life-changing (in terms of loss of fitness) serious ankle sprain, this is something I often pray.
 37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
   I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
38 I crushed them so that they could not rise;
   they fell beneath my feet.
39 You armed me with strength for battle;
   you humbled my adversaries before me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
   and I destroyed my foes.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
   to the LORD, but he did not answer.
42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
   I trampled them like mud in the streets.
43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
   you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
 44 foreigners cower before me;
   as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
45 They all lose heart;
   they come trembling from their strongholds.
 46 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
   Exalted be God my Savior!
47 He is the God who avenges me,
   who subdues nations under me,
 48 who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
   from a violent man you rescued me.
49 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
   I will sing the praises of your name.
 50 He gives his king great victories;
   he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
   to David and to his descendants forever.
NIV note–What David claims in this grand conclusion, and indeed in the whole psalm has been and is being fulfilled in Jesus Christ, David’s great descendant. 

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The Brothers Become Brothers, Gen. 44, Day 54, Feb 23, Blog Through the Bible Project.

By

Peter Von Cornelius

People do grow and change. In the process of maturation is hope for our world.

Genesis 44

A Silver Cup in a Sack

 1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’”
Joseph is human, after all. Is he exacting a tiny bit of revenge here?
 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.”
 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.
 14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 
Fulfilling his dream.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”
 16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”
 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.”
He is testing his brothers to see if they have become brothers.
 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, let me speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’
 21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’ 24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.
 25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’
 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
 33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.”
The brothers have grown, they have matured. They are now men of conscience and kindness. Judah, in particular, shows why his tribe was Israel’s preeminent tribe, and why he was chosen to be an ancestor of the Messiah.
Conscience-stricken over the grief the selling of Joseph brought Jacob, Judah offers himself in stead of Benjamin–as centuries later, Jesus will offer himself as a willing victim in our stead. Judah’s character has significantly changed from the man who suggested selling Joseph into slavery, uncaring of the emotional effect this would have on Jacob.

A Day in Rome: Michaelangelo, Raphael, and the Glories of the High Renaissance

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We spent today with the art which we came to Rome to see. I have been to the Sistine Chapel before in 1986, but the frescoes have been cleaned in the last few years, and the whole thing was a whole lot less crowded and more tourist friendly. What a gargantuan museum! The guidebook warned that one gets footsore just getting to the Sistine Chapel through what feels like many museum miles–and that, unfortunately, was true.


The Sistine Chapel, 300 figures illustrating the pre-history and history of salvation, was painted over 54 years, single-handedly by Michaelangelo, lying on his back.


It was an instance of an artist being forced to produce by a patron.Pope Julius II believed Michelangelo could do anything and ordered him to decorate the ceiling of the chapel. “But I’m not a painter,” Michelangelo protested, “I’m a sculptor.  I’ve hardly done anything with a brush and you want me to paint 2000 square feet on a curved ceiling!” 

“You’ll do a great job,” said Julius. “I’ll have my architect Bramante set up the scaffolding for you.”  1   ‘He will paint it or he will hang!’ he is recorded to have muttered.

Pope Julius II, who was desperate to see it done, only lived for a few months after its conclusion. He is supposed to have constantly asked Michaelangelo during the 54 months  that he laboured on it,  ‘When you will make an end of it?’ and the answer was invariably the same: ‘When I’m finished!’  Finally, he ordered Michaelangelo to remove the scaffold and show the half-finished painting to his guests–who, predictably, were as overwhelmed as we are today.


And here is Michaelangelo’s caricature of himself painting the Sistine chapel ceiling

Michaelangelo, never one to do things by half-measures, came up with a grand design of 300 figures representing the pre-history of Salvation. 






What a glorious soaring conception!


God creates the world in a titanic burst of energy



Extends power to a quiescent Adam







The temptation of Eve is surprisingly modern





And the most amazing of all is Michaelangelo’s conception of the Lamb become a Lion, Christ at the Last Judgment, in radiant power.


Christ is the flesh was powerful, a man’s man. He could walk miles in a day,  get a crowd of 15,000 to move, carry his cross after a scourging which killed weaker men. He was a manual worker, after all. Michaelangelo has captured this aspect of Christ.









And here is the whole of it.


 







Michaelangelo’s last recorded words, to his apprentice were, ” Work, Antonio, work, and do not waste time.”


Michaelangelo’s love was sculpture, and the project into which he had poured his heart, the tomb of  Julius II, was left unfinished because of the commissions and machinations of various popes.


See short post on Michaelangelo’s Moses http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2011/02/when-in-rome-michaelangelos-moses-and.html 
                                                                          * * *


My kids were not thrilled with me, because as I left, I said, “Work, Zoe, work, and do not waste time. Work, Irene, work, and do not waste time.”


And to myself, I said, predictably, “Work, Anita, work, and do not waste time.”
                                                                      * * *


When I last visited Rome, in 1986, I loved the poet Keats, and probably knew everything he had written “by heart.” 


Keats was terrified that he might die before he had written down all the books that were in his mind.
I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charactery
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain, 


he wrote, presciently.


And he was right. He did die very young, and asked for this epitaph, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” I visited his grave on my last Roman pilgrimage.



                                                                         * * * 


And what does one do with these fears that one may never write all the books which are in one’s head?


Surrender yourself to God again. Your life is in your hands. Everything you might ever do or have or make is only by his grace. 


Ask him for grace and time to write the books you really want to write. 


Pray, 


“My life is in your hands,
My love for you will grow, my God
Your light in me will shine.”


From a hymn I used to love when I was 17. Carey Landry.


 




 










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