God, the Pope and Michelangelo

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - April 22, 2005

Almost two years before the Cardinal electors assembled in the Sistine Chapel to discern, with God's help, the one to whom they should pass the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the previous pontiff, Pope John Paul II, gave them and the whole Church a meditation on the principal duty of the new Holy Father.

He gave it in the form of a poem on the theology-in-art of the Sistine Chapel.

During his first twelve years of priesthood, Karol Wojtyla published many poems under two pseudonyms. Friends said he adopted these pen names because he wanted his literary work to be judged on its own artistic merits and not given any "extra credit" because it was written by a popular young priest professor and university chaplain. The poetry by "Andrzej Jawien" and "Stanislaw Andrzej Gruda" was critically well-received, but short-lived. When Father Wojtyla was consecrated a bishop at the age of 38, his new responsibilities did not give him the adequate time to continue the poetry. The poet in him, however, never died.

In 2003, Karol Wojtyla returned to this literary form one last time, publishing three poems under another, much more famous, nom de plume, John Paul II. He returned to poetry because, like many mystics before him, he recognized that it was the least incommensurate manner to put the ineffable into words.

He entitled the three poems the "Roman Triptych." He no longer cared about their being judged on their own artistic merits, but, a pastor-poet to the end, he deemed that the art form would be the most effective vehicle to transmit his message.

He called the second of three poems, "Meditations on the Book of Genesis at the Threshold of the Sistine Chapel." In the Sistine Chapel, he says, Michelangelo translated into a visible Gospel the central images of the beginning and end of the human person.

On the Chapel's vault, we see the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, which "God saw" and pronounced so good. Michelangelo, by his genius, allowed us to see what "God saw," so that we, likewise, can pronounce it good. The message of the goodness of creation "speaks from the walls," … "penned not with words, but with the richness of piled-up colors."

On the front wall of the Sistine chapel, we see Michelangelo's "Last Judgment," which is man's end. While many are frightened by the prospect of judgment, the Pope reminds us that Michelangelo's central message is one of hope: we see Adam, the first sinner, among those who are saved. Although Adam's sin caused him and us to lose so much of our original endowment, it is not the end of the story. God made redemption possible through the New Adam, who is Christ, the center of the Last Judgment and of all of human history. "I will not die completely," Adam rejoices in the Pope's poem. All of us sons and daughters of Adam have the same hope for redemption in the New Adam, the judge of the living and the dead.

This journey from the "old Adam" to the "New Adam" the Pope calls the "path of all generations."

Pope John Paul II was calling on the Cardinal electors to focus on this path during their deliberations. He who spent his entire pontificate teaching that "Christ fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme vocation clear," was reminding them to let Christ fully reveal himself to them from Michelangelo's eloquent walls.

"It is here, at the feet of this marvelous Sistine profusion of color
that the Cardinals gather
a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They come right here.
And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision. …

"The Sistine painting will then speak with the Word of the Lord:
"Tu est Petrus" (you are Peter) as Simon, the son of Jonah, heard.
To you I will give the keys of the Kingdom.
Those to whom the care of the legacy of the keys has been entrusted
gather here, allowing themselves to be enfolded by the Sistine colors,
by the vision left to us by Michelangelo.
So it was in August, and then in October,
of the memorable year of the two Conclaves (1978),
and so it will be again, when the need arises after my death.
Michelangelo's vision must then speak to them."

"Conclave: a joint concern for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They will find themselves between the Beginning and the End,
between the Day of Creation and the Day of Judgment.
It is given to man once to die and after that the judgment!

"A final transparency and light.
The clarity of the events
the clarity of consciences
It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them.
Do not forget: "Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius."
(All things are naked and open before His eyes).
You who are in all, show the way!
He will teach you …"

It is that vision of the human person's beginning and end, his origin and destiny, that the new Pope, and with him the whole Church, receives the mission to preach and to protect.

May the Lord, who is all in all, and who has taught the Cardinals these lessons this week, teach us all with the pope how to walk this "path of all generations"!

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.