Don't Lose Sight of Christ - Pastor's Column August 2021
I recently read an article about a large fresco in the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in the small town of Albi, France. It is a massive floor-to-ceiling work of art from the late 15th century behind the main altar that depicts the Last Judgment. There are layers to the fresco from bottom to top. At the bottom are visions of agony and torment. Above that are numerous bodies rising from the dead, each carrying a book of the account of their lives. Above this the angels and heavenly bodies drift through the air. The central figure to any depiction of the Last Judgment, of course, is Christ the Judge, who is often seated on the throne high in the center as he judges the living and the dead on the last day. However, in this fresco, Christ is strangely missing. This is not because he was never there, but because in the 17th century he was removed when a large, arched doorway was cut through the center of the fresco.
The author of the article recalled a conversation between a young boy and his father when visiting the cathedral to view this work of art. The boy asked, “Who are all these people?” “Dead people,” said the father. “Where did they come from?” asked the child. “I’m not sure,” was the father’s response. The child continued to inquire, “Do they know each other?” “I don’t know,” replied the father. “Who’s in charge?” asked the child. “God, I think,” said the father. “Where is he?” was the child’s final question as the father moved him on without a reply.
Where indeed? The fresco now offers no answer. Without Christ as the central figure, the rest is a jumbled mess that makes no sense. In the conversation, the child had questions to which his father was not able to give good answers since the main character, on whom everything else depends, is strangely absent. Where once Christ sat at the apex of the fresco, there is but a great chasm-of-a-doorway leading into the inner sanctum beyond the wall.
I titled this column “Don’t Lose Sight of Christ” because I think this fresco with its missing Christ figure is a good analogy for so much of life. Without Christ, nothing makes any sense. This place is but a jumbled mess without Christ. Without Christ we would be lost to the often-overwhelming chaos wrought by the unholy trio of sin, death, and the devil. Without Christ, we would be lost as those who have no hope.
So don’t lose sight of Christ, for in him we live and move and have our being. When we behold Christ in his Word, we find comfort and promise in all of life’s chaos of sorrows and hardships. When we behold Christ on the cross, we remember the great love God has for us and all that has been done for us through Christ. When we behold Christ in the sacraments, we are reminded that we are washed and redeemed in the waters of baptism, and claimed as children of God and inheritors of his eternal kingdom. We are fed with the heavenly food of Christ’s own body and blood, filling us with his divine life. When we are blessed to behold Christ in each other, then Christ continues to be truly present with us in the flesh, walking with us in all things.
We live in a world broken by sin, death, and the devil, but through Christ the whole creation is being redeemed, transformed, and made new. Christ is at the center of this work. We look to Christ, and we look at the world through the lens of his cross in order to make sense of all things. Not losing sight of Christ, we cast all our care and hope upon him who is able to bring order out of chaos.
Peace be with you,
Pastor Hooks