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Archbishop Mark - Beyond the Sights
28th June, 2009 - Posted by Archbishop Mark -
We came to Rome a little more briskly than did Paul. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that, after leaving Malta, the ship put into Syracuse for three days and then headed from Sicily to the Italian peninsula where it touched down at Reggio Calabria. After a couple more days, they came to Pozzuoli near Naples, the birth-place of Sofia Loren. Paul stayed there for a week with believers he found there. Then we have the laconic punch-line of Acts: “And so we came to Rome”.
Christians from Rome, we are told, heard of Paul’s arrival and came to meet him at the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns. The Forum of Appius was about 75km from Rome, so this was a considerable act of homage. They would then almost certainly have passed through Velletri and entered Rome through the Porta Appia, better known today as the Porta San Sebastiano. Then he would have been taken to the place of his house arrest which was, according to tradition, on the Aventine Hill in the home of his old friends Prisca and Aquila who had prepared the way for Paul in Corinth and Ephesus and now did the same for him in Rome.
We flew from Thessalonica - a flight of about ninety minutes in a plane that was smallish but not uncomfortable. The only hardship was that they didn’t serve lunch. Things are tough for airlines these days. God alone knows what kind of lunches Paul might have had as he lurched from port to port on his way to Rome. We touched down on time but - unlike Paul - we were not met when we arrived. After the clockwork of Greece, we found ourselves standing forlorn at Fiumicino with the guide and bus nowhere to be seen. Welcome to Rome, I thought. Eventually (i.e. after a few hectic phone calls) we worked out that out guide et al were waiting at another terminal. Why does Italy never change? They appeared finally and off we went. But it wasn’t quite the act of homage we had expected.
Rome was always a city intended to make the visitor gawk. It was architecture with a purpose - on the grand scale to impress the visitor with the grandeur of imperial ideology. This was once the centre of the world - or so at least the claim ran - and what you saw was intended to reinforce exactly that sense. The sights of Rome were intended not just to impress but to overwhelm; and they seem to have succeeded admirably in that. The ruins of the imperial city are impressive enough; in its pomp the city must have been astonishing.
Rome may not be now what it was when Augustus turned Rome from wood to marble. But it still manages to impress, even overwhelm. When I was living in the Vatican, it struck me how the city-state’s art and architecture were essentially catechetical rather than decorative in purpose. Each morning I walked out of Casa Santa Marta where I lived and there in front of me was the colossal pile of Michelangelo’s Dome. It nearly bowled you over ever time you saw it from the front door. But it was only part of whole complex of architecture and art which taught (with great splendour and beauty) that you were only a tiny part of a vast mystery. You were tiny but not at all insignificant. You somehow felt both smaller and grander each time you entered St Peter’s. Hagia Sophia in Constantinople has a similar effect which is quite physical. It thrusts upwards hugely to give you an unforgettable sense of the majesty of God; but then the great shallow domes seem to descend to earth gently to evoke the divine condescension.
Driving through the Urbs Orbis we gawked as the guide rattled on in heavily Italianate English with me grabbing the microphone from time to time to add an Aussie footnote for the pilgrims’ sake. It struck me that this is a city where the visual matters enormously. It speaks to the eye in a very Catholic way. The eye is what matters most in the Catholic sensorium; the ear in the Protestant sensorium. Hence the different stresses upon sacrament and word. Of course it’s never a matter of one or the other; it’s a matter of getting the balance right. The eye without the ear can become meretricious; the ear without the eye can become ethereal. The Incarnation has always been hard to get right.
The icons that so impressed us in Greece speak of the importance of the visual, and they do so in a way that feeds off the truth of the Incarnation. They are powerfully visual, but they succeed only insofar as they take us beyond. If they fail to do that - or if we fail to let them do that - then we have plummeted off into the black hole of idolatry, which was what the Iconoclast Crisis which racked the Byzantine Church for so long was all about. The visual is crucial but it is not enough.
So we pilgrims gawked and marveled as so many before us - pagan and Christian - have done. But we were searching for more. What we saw as we entered Rome was a doorway into the vast mystery of which the splendid sights are a glimpse.
Tomorrow evening in St Paul’s for Vespers and Monday morning in St Peter’s Square for Mass, we will see and hear many things - things that will speak not just of Paul but of Peter and Paul who are always found together in this city. They go together no less than do seeing and hearing. To find the deep point of convergence between Peter and Paul is like finding the deep point of convergence between word and sacrament. It is to touch the truth of the Incarnation. It is to see and hear Jesus himself, crucified and risen.
Tags: Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, footsteps of saint paul, pilgrimage, st paul
Posted on: June 28, 2009
Filed under: Archbishop Mark's teachings, Sights and Sounds
2 Comments
Loui Seselja
June 28th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Dear Bishop Mark
I have just read your description of the beginning of your pilgrimage. I thought I will learn a few interesting facts about those places where Paul traveled 20 centuries ago. I got that but didn’t expect to benefit from deep theological thoughts you shared with us - you don’t seem to waste your time wherever you are! Thank you.
I am glad that Fr Francis is with you. Both of you are, each in a unique way an excellent example of Christian leadership. We in Canberra are really blessed to have both of you. I pray that your journey continues to be both enjoyable and fruitful.
Love
Kate and Loui
Bernice Marris
June 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for the vivid description of Rome, Bishop Mark - particularly from one who has never been there!
Your reflection on Peter and Paul especially struck a chord for me tonight, having travelled to St Mary’s, Young today for the baptism of my grandaughter by Fr Richard Thompson.
It left me pondering the unimaginable riches these two bold Saints have given us.
We will miss the Pilgrims’ blogs when it is all over!
Blessings to all.
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