Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Every once in a while, the schedule of things throws me off. I have my calendar in the office and between that and Janet, I’m usually pretty good at keeping track of where I am and what I’m supposed to be doing. But sometimes, even with that, I miss something. That happened last weekend, not realizing that it was technically the 3 rd Sunday of February and that the deacons were assigned to preach. And so, I’m going to take a bit of the homily I had ready in this week’s letter in the bulletin.
The great Renaissance artist Michelangelo, famous for his works such as the Sistine Chapel, the Pieta, and statues of biblical figures David and Moses, was mostly a sculptor. Working principally with marble, he was unique among even contemporaries in skill and artistic vision. The masterpiece of the Pieta, a massive statue of Mary holding Jesus’s body after it was taken off the Cross, is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that it came from one single piece of marble. Other artists would have likely assembled the work out of several pieces, as that would have been much easier. But Michelangelo is quoted as saying of his sculptures, that he could look at a piece of marble and see the finished work within it; his job was simply to reveal it.
Sculpting, woodworking, and many creative efforts, share a similar approach to making a piece. You often start with big chunks and rough shapes, taking away all that isn’t necessary to eventually get to finished product. You start with the big stuff and only get to the fine details later on. Michelangelo didn’t start with carving the gentle curve of a nose for his statue of David, he worked on defining the basic body shape first, and likely got to the facial details only towards the end.
In our own spiritual and moral lives, the same principle applies. When we start out, our focus isn’t and shouldn’t be on the smallest of sins, it’s usually and rightfully on the big things first. It’s hard to work on not gossiping if we’re still out there robbing banks on the weekends. I hope that makes sense and is reasonable to everyone, even if the example is a bit out there. But what happens once we have cleared the bigger, rougher sins in our lives? Is it enough to say, “Well, I didn’t kill anybody, so I must be doing ok,” or is that missing the mark?
Each of us is a masterpiece of God’s handiwork. And as we go through life, we’re invited to keep working on ourselves and removing sin from our lives. Yes, we should start with the big things first, but a sign of spiritual maturity is to keep working on smaller and smaller sins as time goes on. And in doing so, we reveal more fully God’s beauty in ourselves.
Peace and Goodness,
Fr. Dan
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