It is a new year and I am definitely rockin' with the pope for 2015. Earlier I heard a program that talked about the inspiring social justice activity Pope Francis has been engaged in. I just happen to have a picture of him in a magazine so I thought to myself “ I should draw the Pope. I mean, Why not?”. One of the things that I have been doing lately with Art is just picking up my pen and drawing. NO preparation, no graphing or erasing, just starting a drawing with pen and not stopping until I am finished. It is a different experience- there is a spontaneity and a certain flowing freedom of motion in doing this. The results can be interesting and because I am using pen there can be no erasing.
The drawing pictured above is mostly ballpoint pen but also red and black colored pencil. While working on it I heard wonderfully eurythmic, flowing strings of a Vivaldi piece and being that he was known as “The Red Priest”, I thought I would add some red to this drawing. On the top right is a poem by Saint Francis of Assisi, from whom the Pope takes his name.
Our hands imbibe like roots,
so I place them on what is beautiful in this world.
And I fold them in prayer, and they
draw from the heavens
light.
St. Fransis of Assisi,
Italy (1182-1226)
I think it says much that the Pope chose the name Francis and it also says much that people in the social justice movement are talking about the Pope and Catholicism. They actually had a piece on Democracy Now about Pope Francis. Perhaps we will see a re-emergence of Liberation Theology? That would certainly be nice. Yes, I understand all of the criticisms of Catholicism, organized religion the church and all that good stuff but, hey, Pope Francis is pretty cool. And there is a huge history of Catholics engaging in positive social action, action fueled by their Catholic faith. There are also some interesting arguments for the validity and necessity of the office of the Pope. Something from Fr. Thomas Dubay's book, The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science And Theology Meet:
Unlikely as it may seem to a certain cast of mind, [a] way in which the Spirit concretizes beauty in the church is through her Magisterium, the divinely commissioned teaching office... Humanely established beauty demands protection, which is exactly why Jesus established the Petrine office in his Church, an office with authority to bind and to loose, to proclaim what his message means and does not mean and in such a manner that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. This is why Peter and his successors are the very foundation rock on which the Lord built the edifice of his Church (mt 16:18-19). Those who bear the Petrine office, therefore have the keys of the Kingdom and they protect truth and preserve unity.
(Page 290)
Regardless of one's religious beliefs the Pope is an extremely powerful and influential man and it seems as if he truly does believe that he is of the lineage of the Apostle Peter. Let's hope he uses those keys to the heavens for more positive action that furthers along the process of the healing of humanity. And the Pope's New Years Resolutions? Here they are:
1.Live and let live.
2.Be giving of yourself to others.
3.Proceed calmly in life.
4.A healthy sense of leisure.
5.Sundays should be holidays.
6.Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs.
7.Respect and take care of nature.
8.Stop being negative.
9.Don't proselytize; respect other's beliefs.
10.Work for peace.
Sounds like some good tenets to meditate on and I am about to do just that, with the thought that my meditations will lead to actions...
