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14th
April 2013 - Easter 3 Morning - Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Easter
3 - Sunday - 14th April 2013
Acts 2. 42-47
John 10. 1-10
A few years ago I was lucky enough to go on holiday to Rome and
one of the many places I visited there was the church of Santa
Maria del Populo - St Mary of the Poplar Trees.
Like many of the places I visited, Santa Maria provided blessedly
cool relief from the heat of the Roman autumn outside - even
in late September. But the main reason for entering this particular
church was to see two monumental paintings by the artist Caravaggio,
that are placed opposite each other in one of the many chapels
in that church. One depicts the story from our first reading.
The conversion of St Paul on the Road to Damascus, and the other
shows the crucifixion of St Peter .... which of course comes
rather later in Peter's story than the passage we heard in our
Gospel reading today. There, the most uncomfortable thing he
has to deal with is wet and sodden clothing, after he recklessly
puts his garments back on, before leaping into the waters of
Galilee in an effort to reach the risen Jesus - waiting for him
on the shore with breakfast already cooking on the barbecue!
[ Has anyone else seen these 2 pictures?]
But the thing that struck me about these two pictures - apart
from the marvellous technical mastery of Caravaggio and the use
of light in the picture ( and this is another moment when I long
to be able to show you a visual image to accompany my words ....
roll on our planned A/V system!) - no, the thing that strikes
me and which in a way unites both pictures is that in both the
main subject - St Peter and St Paul, are depicted upside down.
St Peter is shown being crucified on a cross which is upside
down - at his own request we are led to believe so as not to
imitate his master Jesus too closely, while St Paul is lying
on the ground arms outstretched, having just fallen from his
horse who looks on in mild surprise as only a horse can do ...
apparently looking at his erstwhile rider with a glance that
says, "what are you doing down there, you fool?" And
I think the two paintings together illustrate wonderfully what
a topsy-turvy sort of God we follow... Just when you think you
have God all sorted out and understood, he will turn things upside
down and inside out, so that you have to start all over again!
Now as Wikipedia will tell you (!) the two saints, Peter and
Paul, together represent the foundation of the (Catholic) Church.
Peter, the rock upon which Christ declared his church to be built,
and Paul who founded the seat of the Church in Rome. Caravaggio's
paintings were intended to symbolise the devotion of Rome (and
Caravaggio's patron, Cerasi) to the Princes of the Apostles in
this church which dominates the great piazza that welcomed pilgrims
entering the city from the North. And in representing the great
counter-reformation themes of conversion and martyrdom, they
served as propaganda against the twin threats of backsliding
and Protestantism.
But they and we were to learn how God always turns things upside
down and surprises and astonishes us. "When you are old
... someone else will take you where you do not wish to go."....
or maybe even when you are not so old. Paul was still quite a
young man when he is made very forcibly to go somewhere he does
not wish to go - first to fall from his horse; then into a world
of blindness; before being called to spread the very message
that he hated and despised to the gentile world.
Going where we do not wish to go - is primarily of course a
reference to Peter's martyrdom as shown on that picture... but
Peter died a long time ago. If we allow these texts to speak
to us in our own time, they may have other things to say. Many
of us, in the wealthy developed world at least, will grow extremely
old. When I was growing up it was considered a good long life
if one reached the '3-score years and ten' of 70. Now that seems
ridiculously young! And many live on into their 80s, 90s and
beyond. That perhaps is our cross.
In our final infirmities others will take us where we do not
wish to go. And that applies no matter how powerful, influential
and wealthy we may be .... As we have seen this week with the
death of Lady Thatcher. If we're lucky and can afford a good
nursing home, (let alone the Ritz hotel!) they'll no doubt look
after us very nicely. But our frail and failing flesh will be
in their charge, not ours. Someone else will 'fasten my belt'
- and probably the rest of my clothing too!
So maybe we too are being shown by what death we are to 'glorify
God'? Not something you want to think about? No, a bit of a turn
up for the books - but isn't that just what God does? Surprises
and astonishes? What is being said to us as we contemplate our
eventual destiny? The same, maybe, that was said to Peter at
the outset of the story, when Jesus first met him. Ultimately
it is all that Jesus ever says to any of us, "Follow me"....
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