Creativity, the Arts, and the Kingdom

The recent movie The Kingdom paints a fairly bleak picture for future Arab-Western relations. In the fictitious movie, several F.B.I. agents are sent to Saudi Arabia in order to investigate a mythical bombing of American oil workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Both sides do not trust each other and a "clash of cultures" is well documented (everything from profanity and scantily clad Western women versus an austere moral code by Islam to out and out war . . .).

But, in Jesus Christ's Kingdom (whether it is the ultra-orthodox group in the Catholic Church called Opus Dei or Franciscan monks and sisters or Pentecostal televangelists) there is a role for something that actually celebrates the human body! No, this does not mean the MTV style decadence, but instead in the tradition of the best of Catholic and Orthodox (and Protestant) artwork, a view that human physicality, when rightly ordered, is GOOD!

In fact, as the depiction of the Pieta shows, Christ's body (as held in his mother's hands following the crucifixion . . .) is shown in full anatomical splendor! To not be "physical" in the Christian understanding of salvation is to be heretical even! Christ died a real death and rose a real new life through a physical resurrection! Yes, this is a mystery of the faith, but a mystery clothed in the human physique itself!

So, when the naysayers are wanting all human expressions of the body to be drowned out, remember that Christ Jesus died for all of us and died for our bodies! Not only are our "minds" saved (or our hearts!), but yes, even our legs, upper torsoes, and chins, ears, noses, etc.

So, painters and sculptors of the world, be inspired!

The LORD is honored by work that is GOOD!

Love in Jesus Christ, Rob

Art, the 'doorway' to the soul . . .

In St. Augustine's Confessions (the first example of what we moderns would term an "autobiography" . . .), there is a section in which the Doctor of the Church warns the would-be Christian disciple to 'guard one's senses.'

Sure, according to modern categories, things like 'blood and gore' seem to be part and parcel of any nice night at the local cinema, but for Augustine and Christian saints and mystics following him, to imbibe blood and gore, violence, etc. (e.g. the gladiator contests OR our own modern media fascination with death, decay, etc.) is to put our very soul in mortal danger (psuche in Greek, from which we get the word "psychology" . . .).

But, in refusing to take in 'blood & gore,' the senses should not be deprived altogether!

Here I am Catholic through and through!

Icons adorn my home (granted from Russia). Catholic art is a fascination for me, even including a poster of the famed Pieta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieta) in which the Virgin Mary is holding the dead body of Jesus Christ.

In looking to Christian Art, my soul is elevated!

That is why it is such an honor for me to attend (tonight!) a viewing of "Splendors of the Vatican," a collection of Roman Catholic art on display here at my local, hometown arts district (The Florida International Museum . . .). I do not know what my 'eyes' will take in (and yes, as my Puerto Rican Catholic mom would say, "the eyes are the gateway to the soul . . ."), but I do know that my soul will be marked forever!

So, tonight and through this Season of Lent, let us turn off the blood and gore (TV or movies . . .) and take in something healthy! Watch the History Channel or EWTN Catholic television if you like watching television. Be proactive and maybe even visit your local art gallery.

Like St. Augustine warned us against the 'blood & gore' of Imperial Roman persecution (i.e. it was CHRISTIANS who were sacrificed to the 'gladiator games'), so also must we not imbibe of such grotesque sites.

Blessings in Christ Jesus,
PAX CHRISTIANA ROB J. KING