In the five hundred years of the Christian story
since Michelangelo painted the Sistine ceiling it has proved very difficult to
achieve a meeting of minds in Religious matters as the Christian family fell
apart. However, there is a lot of
dialogue taking place. This has been the
case especially in the last fifty years, ever since the Second Vatican
Council. So we must be ever hopeful.
The Council encouraged dialogue between the Church
and the secular world between Christians and other faiths, within the various
Christian Churches and within the Catholic Church worldwide and locally. In the decree on bishops, the bishop, for
instance, is told to initiate and promote dialogue with his people (No
13). He is told to engage in dialogue
with his priests, both individually and collectively (No 28). In the decree on the training of priests, the
seminarians are to be trained so that they are equipped ‘to dialogue with the
people of these times’ (N0 15) So
dialogue is meant to feature in every aspect of the life of the diocese and of
each parish. This is not always easy and
perhaps we think we are better at it than we really are!
Pope Francis certainly gives us a good
example. It is now three years since he
became Bishop of Rome. The Cardinals
came to a quick decision, electing him on the fifth ballot even though in the
Church at large he was rather an unknown quantity. But his fellow Cardinals knew him well – or
at least they thought they did! He is
the first ever Pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit Pope, the first to take
the name Francis and the first Pope in fifty years not to have taken part in
the Second Vatican Council. Pope
Benedict took part in his capacity as a theologian. He was not a bishop until the Council ended. Pope Francis, on the other hand, was not
ordained a priest until December 1969, four years after the end of the Vatican
Council. Within weeks of becoming Pope
he washed the feet of prisoners on Maundy Thursday, including the feet of a
Muslim woman. Strictly speaking that was
against Canon Law but the Pope has changed that law! Like St Francis, he communicates as
effectively by gestures as by words.
To return to Michelangelo! Twenty-five years after he had completed the
painting of the ceiling in 1512, he was again issued with an invitation that he
couldn’t refuse to return to the chapel to paint a fresco of the Last
Judgement. He was now sixty-two years
old and perhaps suffering from arthritis but it was another of his great
triumphs and took him four years. He
completed it in 1541 to great acclaim.
Paul III, who insisted on having it done, allegedly fell on his knees
when he first saw it and prayed ‘O Lord, charge me not with my sins when you
come on the day of judgement.’ It was
commissioned as ‘The Resurrection’ by which was meant not the Resurrection of
Christ but rather the Resurrection of the blessed on ‘the last day’. But the Resurrection of the dead and the Last
Judgement are two aspects of the same mystery.
The painting displays plenty of naked flesh which is a hallmark of
Michelangelo’s work. But the painting we
see today is not quite what was seen in 1541.
when it displayed even more flesh.
ASome dignitaries remarked to Paul III that the painting was more
fitting for a tavern or bath-house than the Pope’s chapel. Another criticism referred to the painting’s
indecency ‘in the most sacred chapel in the world’. But it remained unchanged until 1564 – the
year of Michelangelo’s death – when Pius IV employed an important painter to
address the problem. These discreet
alterations remain to this day!
