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The Jewel-Box of God
22nd June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Mark -
These days it’s not often that I learn something from a tour guide. I hope that doesn’t sound smug or arrogant but it’s just a fact. It’s part of being on the earth for sixty years and doing some of the things I’ve done. But we have had a couple of first-class guides so far, and the one we have at the moment - Iacovos, known as James - is a cracker. This guy really knows history (fair bit of Bible too) and speaks excellent English; he even has an Italian mother. He told us today that the Greek word “cosmos” means “world”, which I thought was pretty obvious. He then said - and this is what I didn’t know - that it also means “jewel”. Hence the English word “cosmetic”. Great point, I thought. The Greeks regarded the planet as a jewel, and how right they were. The first cosmonauts were moved by the beauty of the planet seen from a distance - a sapphire shrouded in lace, they thought.
St Paul in his Letter to the Romans speaks of the whole creation, the cosmos, groaning in a great act of giving birth. I thought of the light throbbing at the heart of this jewel planet, like a child wanting to leave the womb. The birth will come when the light bursts from the jewel, and the name of the light is Jesus. Until then we are aglow with the promise of the birth to come, a jewel spinning through dark space.
Today on our way to Meteora from Athens we left behind the starkness of southern Greece and the jewelled seas of the Aegean to head for the north. Up into the hills we went, signs to Delphi and Mount Parnassus on our right; then out on to the great plain of Thessaly until looming before us were the vertical rocks of Meteora with their monasteries set like jewelled crowns upon them.
What do monasteries have to do with Paul? Well, a fair bit actually. Christian monasticism emerged with the figure of St Antony of Egypt only once the great persecutions were over. The cities had become too cosy for Christians, the first monks thought; and they headed off into the desert not to escape anything but to confront the power of evil face to face. This was the great struggle of the martyrs; they had stared the beast in the face and they had triumphed. The first monks went to the desert to live another kind of martyrdom as they too stared the beast in the face and triumphed in a different way. Paul was a martyr; he was swept away in the tide of blood. But the first monks sought to live a witness no less radical and powerful in the changed circumstances of their own time. It’s at that point of witness that Paul and the monks converge. They become jewels in the crown of the Church.
We were taken to an icon work-shop on the outskirts of Meteora. This sort of visit is not normally my thing - at all. But this was the real thing. There was a dazzling array of icons and a few of us bought more than we should have perhaps. The chief icon-writer is a local priest who is the son of a priest and whose two sisters were our most gracious hosts at the work-shop. We were talked through the process of producing icons, and then shown the finished products which glittered like jewels around the display room. They didn’t need the lighting effects often used in the West to give a three-dimensional feel to painting; these icons seemed to glow with a light from deep within. There was such a profusion of beauty that I didn’t know where to look first. I’m not exactly sure why icons move me as they do; perhaps it’s the combination of aesthetic and spirituality, of tradition and transcendence. But I know I’m not the only one. I could sense the energy and enthusiasm of the pilgrims as they moved through the works; and I could see what they bought. I even blessed a couple of the purchases on the spot; no extra charge.
We then went into the town - and up a very steep hill - to visit a wonderful Byzantine church in the town dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin, or as we would say the Assumption of Our Lady. This church used to be the seat of a Bishop and is decorated therefore in grand style. Everywhere you look there are splendid wall-paintings and icons; and because we were from Australia we were even shown behind the iconostasis into the sanctuary itself. For us it is incomprehensible that the Orthodox have such a separation of clergy and people in the liturgy; but for them it is no less incomprehensible that we have almost none. In the West, we once had rood-screens and altar-rails, but these have now gone for the most part. If you suggested to the Orthodox that it might be better if they removed the iconostasis and moved the altar forward to involve the people more, they would doubtless be scandalised.
As we were leaving, the priest entered the church and broke into German. In my best German, I tried to explain who we were and to greet him in the peace of the Lord. I also introduced him to Archbishop Carroll. I was afraid that the priest might want to give us a second guided tour of the church - and in broken German! So I quickly told him that the church was a gem and that we were deeply grateful that we’d had the chance to visit. He seemed happy with that and bustled off to the sacristy while we stumbled down the hill to the bus, satisfied in our own way that we’d had a day of exploring the overflowing jewel-box of God. We had touched the mystery in a way that was more than cosmetic.
Tags: Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, footsteps of saint paul, pilgrimage, st paul
Posted on: June 22, 2009
Filed under: Archbishop Mark's teachings
3 Comments
Louise Parsons
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 am
Archbishop Mark,
Your words about the icons reminded me of 2007 when we took our daughter to see the Pope at the Vatican. (Ursula & Bob had asked you to help us book a spot for her in her wheelchair.) She purchased a beautiful icon of St. Peter that reminded her of her uncle who had tragically died 4 years prior. On holding it up to be blessed by his holiness… he smiled and took it as a special gift. We have told her that he would be treasuring it’s importance and probably has it on his bedside table! The saints teach us that it is better to give than receive.
May God bless you all on this wonderful pilgrimage.
Denis Matthews
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:39 am
I have been away from home for a week so I am just catching up with your group. I am so pleased to see the picture of the group watching the icon workshop with Pieter and Sheila in shot. It is a fantastic idea for the group sharing their experiences with the rest of us
Wendy Fisher Hudson
June 25th, 2009 at 7:56 am
How wonderful your visit to the monasteries at Meteorea and the icon workshop must have been. While the group I was with some time ago visited the monasteries, our icon workshop visit was to a far more commercial one: they used antiquing powder on the finished image and also warped boards. When I queried this (who would want to deface an image of the Lord?) I was told that they catered for “rich Americans” who preferred “aged” icons. Perhaps you might ask the group to include among their special intentions prayer for the success of the Cathedral icon project and for St Benedict’s School of Iconography. I pray that you will all be drawn more closely into the Word of God as you experience more icons on your pilgramage.
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