You know how people sometimes claim to see the image of the blessed Virgin in rust stains on some concrete wall? Or the face of Jesus in the burn marks of a tortilla? Well, I tend to be rather skeptical of such things. After all, how does anyone know what Mary or Jesus actually looked like anyway? Besides, I have a hard time seeing these so-called miraculous images. I squint and stare, but I just can't make quite see it.
And then I drive over to church this morning, on the feast day of St. Michael and All Angels, and I'm hit with this image emerging from the asphalt of our parking lot:
Now as I said, I tend to have a hard time seeing any of these so-called "visions," but this one seems to be rather clear. I'm sure once the media gets a hold of this, we'll be having a lot of pilgrims trampling on the grass and generally making a mess of things. I noticed that someone has already left their water bottle. I'll probably have to print a few more bulletins for tomorrow's liturgy in case anyone wants to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.
Actually, our angelic vision in the parking lot is brought to us by the renowned street artist Melanie Stimmel who is chalking this marvelous reproduction as part of a Michaelmas festival at our church today. Watching this remarkable young artist at work has been a real treat for one who nearly flunked high school art. I just hope the property committee remembered to shut off the sprinkler system.
It is a delightful way to rejoice in the angels, those incorporeal creatures who glide between heavenly kairos and earthly chronos, whose faces are ever turned to the Father even as they watch over us, and whose "Holy, holy, holy" is joined with ours in the divine liturgy.
Still let them aid us and still let them fight, Lord of angelic hosts, battling for right, Till, where their anthems they ceaselessly pour, We with the angels may bow and adore.
Posted On: October 18th, 2007 at 8:06am by revcwirla
Sarah -
The phrase wasn't quite accurate. It is meant to be the equivalent of "eternity and time."
Kairos and chronos are the two ways we experience "time." Chronos is time as a sequential event - past, present, future. We measure it with clocks and calendars, and pretend that we have it, but we really don't. (There are no clocks in heaven, neither "sun nor moon" but endless Day.)
Kairos is a moment in which the eternal (aion, another "time" word) intersects chronological time. Worship is a kairos event, where all that was, and is, and is to come is present in the "here and now."
To be very accurate, I should have written, "who glide between eternity and chronos...."
It's definitely a great artwork! I've always loved the realism of chalk-on-pavement.
Re: no one knowing what Jesus (or any of His followers, for that matter) looked like: I have made friends with several Muslims with the ultimate goal of bringing them to Christ; one of their main objections is (looking at the 114th sura of the Quran) that once we can imagine what a candidate for God looks like, the candidate is not God. Perhaps I can use the fact that there is not one word in the Bible describing Jesus's physical appearance as rebuttal evidence.
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