ADVENT 2002 MEDITATIONS

Week 5: Christmas Season
Christo Emmauel
Cordero de Dios
Jesucristo El Lucero Radiante del Alba

As the feeling of the individual self became stronger, man lost his natural connection to silent knowledge. Modern man, being heir to that development, therefore finds himself so hopelessly removed from the source of everything that all he can do is express his despair in violent and cynical acts of self-destruction. Don Juan asserted that the reason for man's cynicism and despair is the bit of silent knowledge left in him which does two things: One, it gives man an inkling of his ancient connection to the source of everything; and, two, it makes man feel that without this connection, he has no hope of peace, of satisfaction, or attainment.
Carlos Castenada, 1987
The annual repetition of the nativity of Christ as a real event on the spiritual plane - like those of his miracles, his passion, his resurrection and ascension - means to say that just as the external sun eternally repeats springtime, summer, autumn, and winter. So, then does the spiritual sun reveal his eternal springtime aspect - his infancy - at Christmas, his eternal summer aspect - his miracles, his eternal autumnul aspect - the ascension. This means to say, again, that the ages are eternal - that infancy, youth, middle age and old age are eternal. The Christ is eternally Child, Master, Crucified and Resurrected.
Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism
Anonymous, English Edition, 1985
In 1986, I accidentally came across the magazine Commonweal, with a review of the book Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, by an Anonymous author who had died in 1973 and would not allow the book to be published until after his death. We'd been taught as children to be wary of such things as the Tarot, so I was surprised to see it in a Catholic magazine. All I knew of the Hermetic tradition was that John the Evangelist spoke in a language very similar to the Ancient Hermeticists. The review said that von Balthasar had written an introduction for the German translation Die Grossen Arcana De Tarot, in which he said "By way of major Arcana the author seeks to lead meditatively into the deeper, all embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery." The trappist author, Basil Pennington said, "It is such a rich collection of wisdom drawn from such a staggering number of diverse sources that it leaves the mind almost reeling. Besides the Bible we find the Upanishads, the Kabbala, the Hermeticists, and men as divers as Origen and Chardin, Plato and Bergson, Jung and John of the Cross, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. It is without doubt the most extraordinary work I have ever read…" I rushed out to find the book and devoured it in a month, understanding only about half of what I read, yet deeply committed to wanting to learn from this beautiful work. For the next few years I lived inside the guidance of this spiritual master, while working at St. Vincent's AIDS hospice in Manhattan. The quote I placed at the beginning of this meditation is, for me, essential in spiritual direction. As a child, I was with the Crucified Lord. As a young art student I was with the infant Jesus and youthful Christ. During the years of work in the hospice, I was with the healer; it was the dying young people who showed me the Risen Christ.

I have since seen that people go to different aspects of Christ quite naturally. Rather than try to force them into a relationship with one aspect or another, why not see how it is that Christ is coming to them? Ignatius of Loyola opens all of these aspects in his retreat, so that each phase or season of the Lord is experienced. Francis of Assisi re-invented the Nativity scene by "down-sizing" it or returning it to its Gospel poverty. The Franciscans are also credited with spreading devotion to the Stations of the Cross, which bring you face to face with the Passion. Julian of Norwich spoke with "Our Mother Jesus" bleeding from the Cross, but she says joyfully that our mother brings us into his heart through his open side. Joseph and Anthony hold the Holy Child, John of the Cross picked up the Infant out of his crib and danced with him. Teresa of Avila meets the child who asks her "Who are you?" A little taken aback, she boldly answered "I am Teresa de Jesús. And who are you?" And the child answered "I am Jesús de Teresa." The Poor Clares speaking for their holy mother Clare during her canonization process said that she had three apparitions of the Child Jesus. John at Patmos reveals the voice and presence of the Risen One, The Ancient of Days, in the Apocalypse.




In Wisdom 7, the author says of himself, "I too was modeled in flesh inside a mother's womb, where for ten months, in blood I acquired substance… Crying was the first sound I made, like everyone else." Origen, whose entire life was scripture - to such a degree that there has been no one like him, said, "We believe that God's Sophia entered a woman's womb, was born as an infant, and wailed like other crying children." An Orthodox hymn for the feast of the Annunciation sings, "Thou has borne us a little child, the Ancient of the Days, who has shown new ways on earth, and hast renewed the fallen creation, thou unwedded and blessed one." And a favorite poem of mine from the English poet, Saint Robert Southwell a Jesuit martyr.

Behold the Father is his daughter's son.
The bird that built the nest is hatch'd therein.
Might feeble is and force doth faintly creep."


All the icons of Christ Emmanuel seek to portray this glorious mystery of God become human. Yes, as Origen said, he is like other infants and iconography…

"…had the task of portraying the Word of God in its pre-existence, his eternal being before the Incarnation, as well as in his existence after the Incarnation… For that reason there was a certain reluctance in early Byzantine art to depict him as a child; rather he was shown as similar to the Ancient of Days. In icon painting he is portrayed as an old man… The rounded, projecting forehead and the somber eyes of an adult…
Icons: The Fascination and The Reality
Konrad Onasch and AnneMarie Schnieper
This particular icon of Christ Emmanuel was my attempt to copy the original by the 17th century Russian master, Simon Ushakov, and I subtitled him "Cordero de Dios, because of his gentle lamb-like hair and appearance. If I had not already chosen St. Andrei Rublev as the patron saint of my studio, I would have reached for Simon Ushakov. I think he deftly walks the difficult tightrope depicting the divinity and humanity of Christ. Some criticize his icons as too western and prefer other iconographers from an earlier era. I love the early icons too, but Ushakov's icons glow with the traditional "Taboric Light" - remaining pure icons of infinite tenderness. The Art Historians praise Leonardo da Vinci for his extremely delicate blending of shade into light, the Italians call "sfumato". This technical genius is also found in Ushakov.

These final two icons in our meditations belong strictly beyond the Nativity and into the Christmas season which follows. They dwell on the child Jesus and the youthful Christ; what we commonly call his "Hidden Life." We have only one story from Luke about these hidden years. The boy was thought to be lost in Jerusalem, but was actually in a three-day conversation with scripture scholars in the Temple. I'd like to share a poem I wrote when I was working in the hospice about Christ's transition from the "springtime' of his life:

The Eternal Summer Aspect of the Child

At the Presentation
he was forewarned
by the frown and
cast shadow
of Simeon,
the falling hands
and eyes of Anna,
and the desperate
hold and tears
of the young Mother,
that the eternal
summer aspect
of the Child
could darken and fade
in autumnal shades.
He was instructed
first by the gifts and
golden adoration
of the Magi,
chiefly through

the waft and billow
of myrrh and incense,
he learned
where the throne
of the kingdom
was to be planted.
In the Temple
of winter
he was taught
from within
amidst the air
of caution, incredulity
and embarrassed
veneration - gifts
from the Doctors
of Scripture and Law-
that he was no
preternatural visitor,
but a God Child
at home.
Springtime woke
to see him
flowing eloquently,
a vibrant sapling,
ever yearning,
ever yielding,
to the lights of
night and day.
In the summer
he could see
Mt. Tabor
from their home
in Nazareth
and count the stars
over its crest.
There he learned
to read the
book of constellations
teaching him
in starlit epiphanies,
in but a brief moment
he would be
the radiant
dawn.


Following the murders of the children at Columbine High School in Colorado, I began to imagine creating an icon of a teenaged Christ. It seems the world these kids have inherited is increasingly impossible for them to bear. With the massive numbers of deaths in September 2001, we all feel the stalking presence of evil. Olga Torres-Reid's invitation to create an altar for the 'Dia de los Muertos' (All Souls Day) in an exhibit she was curating, entitled "Sobre Muerte" (About Death)at a museum in Taos, placed me directly at the center of this present tension. Death itself is not evil. Francis spoke of death as the final friend who takes us home…our Sister Death. However, the deliberate murder of innocent people In Manhattan or Afghanistan is evil. How to respond to this conflicting vision of death? Bringing the icon of the teenage Christ into the world gave me an opportunity. I was paining the icon that September, when for a multitude of Americans Death came out of his hiding place, with scythe and victims spread all over the media day after day. Had we not seen him before in the past century's wars in Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Bosnia…Central and South America? And what of the millions of deaths from AIDS in Africa, Haiti, Russia, India, China and the United States? Whatever our blindness or denial, he was now visible and had declared war on our children…the starving in Ethiopia, Iraq…and the hunted, abused and murdered all over the world. And so the background in the darkened landscape behind the young Christ, became a cemetery, and the Boy received the wounds, thus marking him as a Passion Bearer and Risen Lord.

The frame was carved by my friend, Roberto Lavadie a Santero and master woodworker. I had seen the haunting image of the skull with wings during my student years in New England, on the old Puritan gravestones. What does it mean for a skull to have wings? A pertinent question for these times.

I painted the frame in black and white and brought a Taos teenager, as Christ, into the ominous landscape, dressing him in traditional colors worn by Christ in his adult icons; blue (divinity) over red (humanity). Christ is the only color in the icon, he is the light and the life in the midst of death. The title "Jesucristo El Lucero Radiente del Alba" comes from the last chapter of the Apocalypse, verse 16: "I am the radiant light of the dawn" or "I am the bright morning star" Though surrounded by darkness and bearing the world's wounds, death has no dominion over the Lord of life, and it is he who will nurture and guide our youth, when we show Him to them. I close with a litany to the Morning Star:

Litany to Jesucristo El Lucero Radiante del Alba

(After each invocation, we say "Pray for Us".)

Jesus Christ,
Sar rising from Jacob,
Radiant morning light.
Jesus Christ,
Holy Wisdom enfleshed,
Son of Mary,
Jesus Christ,
Humble mirror of Joseph,
Guardian of youth.
Jesus Christ,
Beloved Child of the Father,
Gospel to the world.

Jesus Christ,
Ocean of mercy,
Ocean of love,
Tree of healing leaves.

Jesus Christ,
Bread from Heaven,
Holy Communion.
Mother Pelican,
Precious Blood.

Jesus Christ,
Shepherd of the despised
And rejected,
Lamb led to slaughter.

Jesus Christ,
Lamb of God,
Lamp of the
Heavenly City.

Jesus Christ,
Bridegroom and Lover,
Faithful and True.

Jesus Christ,
Evening Star, firstborn
of the dead,
Alpha and Omega,
Beginning and end.

Amen

Father William Hart McNichols
November 12, 2002
Feast of Nuestra Senora de las Sandias



November 2002
Father William Hart Dominic McNichols






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The frame was carved by my friend, Roberto Lavadie a Santero and master woodworker. I had seen the haunting image of the skull with wings during my student years in New England, on the old Puritan gravestones. What does it mean for a skull to have wings? A pertinent question for these times.