Notice the satisfied appearance on Salome's face, and Salome's proportionately smaller head size. Salome appears to be in a rush with John's severed head on the platter.
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III. Finally, click on the following URL to visit a Byzantine icon of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist:
The URL, above, leads to a Byzantine icon depicting the beheading of St. John the Baptist. Note that a young woman, dressed in the color of the martyrs, readies a basket to receive the severed head of the Forerunner. The girl's hair is braided; around the circumference of her temples she wears a golden diadem, which depicts the reward for the witness of Christ. Study the face of St. John, observing the calm appearance to his eyes in particular, and his apparent gaze in the direction of the red-dressed assistant. The eyes of the assistant are turned down and to the left, in the direction of her left hand, which supports the basket. Her attention is to her duty, and not the falling sword.
Yesterday, the 28th day of August, marked the Feast Day among Roman Christians and their progeny for St. Augustine of Hippo. His philosophical and theological text, Confessions, served several purposes in Christian apologetics and evangelism from the start.
One advantage was the honesty of the author, who recounted his disobedient behavior prior to active conversion to Christ after completing post-secondary studies. St. Augustine later served as a bishop over the diocese of Hippo, in what today is Algeria. But long before his ordination to the presbyterate and elevation to episcopal office, Augustine was a carouser, occasionally drunk in public, and a cad. He tells all in the Confessions.
Augustine is identified as a great Church Father by the West--associated with Rome, but he has received the title Blessed Augustine by vast numbers of Eastern Christians. The lower respect among Eastern Christians requires attention to such themes as Augustine's heterodox treatment of sin, human cooperation in salvation, and the so-called atonement theory of Christ's sacrifice--to name a few.
Martin Luther, 16th-century German reformer was professed in the Congregation of St. Augustine, whose monks followed the cenobitic rule of Augustine. Luther was well acquainted with Pauline and Petrine scriptural sources about faith and grace that fell on fallow ground during excesses of the post-Charlemagne papacies. To this day, the only cenobitic monastery of Lutherans in the USA is dedicated to St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Augustine's House and the Congregation of the Servants of Christ is located in Oxford, Michigan--about 60 mile northwest of Detroit.
I believe in all things seen and unseen. The Nicene Creed.
During the first and second Ecumenical Councils of the ancient Church, the Nicene Creed was composed. The Nicene Creed appeared in the early to mid-4th century CE. A line from the Creed, "I believe in all things seen and unseen," is the topic of this post.
Pan ahead hundreds of years to the late 1950's. My family piled into its '58 Chevy Biscayne coupe headed to a drive-in movie. Mom and Dad took the front seats, and the three kids were restless in the back seat. I remember the topic of conversation turned to God. Not sure about exactly what we discussed, my Dad posed a question that left a lasting impression on me.
"Eddie," he asked, "how can you be sure that God exists?" The question hit me hard. I felt sick all of sudden, like someone punched my stomach full force. The wind was knocked out of me, and I remember stuttering something. Soon my Mom came to my aid. My father did not pursue the question, but I remember that family outing to a drive-in theatre as the first time that I experienced doubt concerning God and unseen things.
Doubt might well be the opposite of belief. For example, doubt--as antonym of belief--accompanies what the Apostle Thomas voiced about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Seeing is believing--to paraphrase Thomas (John 20: 19-31), which earned him the epithet "Doubting Thomas."
But I have grown to respect my doubts. Doubts are necessary for me to walk by faith in relationship to the Holy Trinity. When asked now about what the "unseen things" of the Creed are, I usually answer that they are my doubts. I cannot see my doubts, but I believe they exist.
Plunging into action, even with doubts unresolved, reflects courage and at least a modicum of faith. If one does something with doubt, especially if the outcome is favorable, then faith grows stronger. Take the Baptism of infants as an example.
When a priest of Christ plunged my infant body into the waters of Baptism, even he might have had doubts that I might aspirate water in the split-second my head was beneath water. It never happened before that an infant aspirated, but what if it happened that day? Watch a baptismal party sometime. If immersion of the infant is required, you may notice there are faint gasps among adults assembled for the Baptism that later turn into sighs of relief after the baby emerges from beneath the water.
Born out of the water of Baptism, an eternal life in Christ begins. New life is unseen, just the same. Christians take note of things seen and unseen. Sometimes it happens that we doubt even what is right before our eyes. The disciples of Jesus--no doubt--doubted the Resurrected Christ.
The Gospel narratives of Christ's Resurrection are evidence that Christ anticipated doubts about things seen and unseen when it came to experience with the Word of God made flesh. Consider these reflections from Homily 71 of His Holiness Leo the Great of Rome [On the Lord's Resurrection-I]: "For to this end He [Christ Jesus] entered when the doors were closed upon the disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them, and after giving them the light of understanding opened the secrets of the Holy Scriptures, and again Himself showed them the wound in the side, the prints of the nails, and all the marks of His most recent Passion, whereby it might be acknowledged that in Him the properties of the divine and human nature remained undivided, and we might in such sort know that the Word was not what the flesh is, as to confess God's only Son to be both Word and flesh" [section III, Homily 71].
Doubtgoes hand-in-glove with Faith in Christ, because the divine and human nature of Christ remain undivided.We see the Word disclosing the flesh, and we see the flesh of Jesus disclosing our Lord Christ. But seeing the undivided nature of Christ one time only may not quell our doubts.
Repeated exposure to the Resurrected Christ among the close circle of Christ's disicples was necessary to re-confirm in Faith what the five senses, alone, failed to convince. We profess, in other words, "...all that is seen and unseen."
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, said Jesus to Thomas days after the Resurrection, for their happiness does not require repeated confirmation by the five senses. Instead, the blessed are satisfied in Faith for they "...believe in all that is seen and unseen."
Where I grew up in a little town near Dallas, Texas, Mamie Eisenhower and husband, President Ike, modeled a mature and gracious couple for families, just as they represented dedication to families across the nation.
"American women loved her [Mamie] because they identified with her," according to her biography on the Dwight D. Eisenhower website (www.dwightdeisenhower.com). Women, like my mother, appreciated how Mamie could work many hours every day, like any dedicated man in public service. My mom, like Mamie, ran a big operation raising 3 stair-step kids, managing a home on a meager budget, and still looking pretty when my dad returned from work.
Heroic effort it all took.
One day when I might have been 5 or 6 years of age, I watched my mom hang curtains in the living room. She measured the curtain rod, drilled holes to secure the rod, and hung new flowery print panels that she spent the prior week sewing on a borrowed Singer sewing machine.
I felt the living room change right before my eyes. Something peaceful had occurred--something that I call 'beauty.' I knew that I was in the family home, but the family home became something more. Knowing that I was watching beauty unfold, I remarked: "Mama, I think that you can do anything." She was three steps up a ladder at the time.
Best I recall, mom finished the task and stepped down. She replied, "I think that I can, too. Thank you for saying that." Scrappy kid that I was, I probably went back to throwing Lego's at my younger brother. But the memory painted a mark in a place inside my mind's home, which is "...cool, clean, and quiet."
That is the place, in spirit, where Easwaran recommends one go to repeat an inspirational passage such as the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. A child recalls a moment of beauty, and locates similar places where beauty is stretched out like handmade curtains to hang his meditations. Children of 5 or 95 years in age need a place at home where they can dive deep for treasures of the heart.
Where is that place inside your home? Try locating it, if you would, and return every morning to repeat the passage: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace...".
I still wonder how mom created "...a place that is cool, clean, and quiet." My wonder twinkles in my eyes (I am the guy with the hat).
