The Church, as God’s Subcreator, has given to the world two great gifts which reflect God’s love, truth and beauty. Art and Saints. In art, truth, beauty and love are manifested in the arrangement of matter or physical sound waves. In saints, love, beauty and truth are manifested in the actions of one of God’s images, a person.
Studying the lives of saints and gazing at an image crafted by a true master, hearing a composition of a devout composer who intended to open us up into mystery can, over time, produce great fruits.
For example, consider the famous 6th c. Byzantine icon of Christ Pantocrator. Christ’s face is odd. One might be inclined to say that the artist botched it. On deeper inspection we see that His face reveals two attitudes, in the two halves of His face. On the right side He holds perhaps the Gospels – perhaps the Book in which all things are written – and His attitude is that of the severe Judge whom nothing shall escape. On the left, His hand blesses and his face is gentle.
This artistic treasury yielding spiritual dividends is made by a man.
How much more might it be true of an image made by God?
First and foremost, we contemplate Christ Himself, the Eternal Word made flesh. The Son is the perfect invisible image of the invisible Father, begotten but not made. In His Incarnation and Birth, the Son takes His Body, made with the Virgin Mother, and becomes the perfect visible image of the invisible Father. In contemplating Him we find infinite mysteries, awesome and alluring.
Next, each one of us are images of God. Each person reflects mystery, as do especially the saints who beautifully reflect God in living flesh.
However, our fallen nature’s solitary boast, Mary the Mother of God, presents mystery to us in her own way.
Let’s see the the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast it is.
The tilma has revealed many mysteries. As science advances, more and more fascinating – and hitherto unknown elements – are discovered in it, much as what is happening with the image of Mary’s crucified Son, the Shroud of Turin (which I happen to accept as being authentic).
That said, there are things to be discovered not through tech, but through attention.
The writer, Pete Baklinski, gazed at the image of Mary in the tilma. It eventually occurred to him that one side of her face looked happy, pleased, while the other side looked said.
The left side
The right side
He explored Mary’s message at Guadalupe and found themes of both joy and sadness. He suspects that her image means to reflect both.
You might go over there and read the whole account.
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She is the most beautiful, the most pure, the most holy creation of God.
There is so much to learn about this beautiful image. It seems to be a living thing, with a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees F, and, when a non-Mexican, non-Catholic scientist placed a stethoscope on Mary’s abdomen, it registered 115 beats/minute – which is the normal heartbeat of an unborn child. When 2,000x magnification was applied to her eyes a couple of years ago, several images were reflected – a native Mexican man and 12 men in clerical garb, one of whom was dressed as a bishop. The image has no brush strokes because it was not painted. It should have deteriorated to dust 10 years after the apparition, but is as fresh and pliable as ever, even surviving a disastrous fire which destroyed the original basilica, a bombing, and an acid attack. And there are endless other astonishing facts discovered by unbiased scientific study done on the tilma.
Thank you so much, Father, for the excellent article. Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe – Viva!!!
For those without faith, there is no explanation. For those of us who with Faith, there is no explanation necessary.
Thank
Another interesting “tidbit” regarding Our Lady’s artistry in this image:
I recall reading in a booklet on the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that, we notice that her inner sleeves are lined with fur.
This is not an Aztec sign at all.
It is a Jewish sign of maternity.
Incredible, the depths of communicated truth in this Work of Art of Hers…
Thanks for this amazing offering, Father, and for posting the Cardinal’s 9-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe. I’m going to continue to say the prayer, substituting “this prayer” for “this novena.”
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