Meeting Mary at the Fair
The 87-members of the class of ’65 at Clarion Area High School took our senior trip to the New York City World’s Fair. I’m surprised by the exhibt I remember most clearly.
I didn’t expect to be impressed by the Vatican pavilion. I grew up in a rock-ribbed Protestant family in an equally Protestant-dominated town. I wasn’t sure what the Catholics were doing inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception with its statues, candles, and crucifix, but I was pretty sure they were wrong. I also had no idea what they were doing on Ash Wednesday with that dark smudge on their foreheads.
I followed the tour guide reluctantly into the pavilion where the focal point was Michelangelo’s Pieta. The tour book called it “The Crown Jewel of the Fair.”
Vatican Pieta
Vatican Photo from thee 1964-65 World's Fair.
A surprising silence enveloped a bunch of noisy teenagers as we stepped onto the slowly moving walkways that carried us into the dark blue exhibit area where we viewed the statue through bullet-proof, ceiling-to-floor Plexiglas panels. The visual impact was as powerful as it was beautiful. I’ve never forgotten it.
Michelangelo captured in the Pieta the fulfillment of words from Simeon to Mary and Jospeh when they brought their 40-day-old baby boy to the Temple for the dedication.“Sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart.” (Luke 2:35 TEV)
A soul friend and pastoral colleague was in the eighth grade when he went to the Fair. He said the visual impact of Mary holding the broken body of Jesus became a significant part of his spiritual journey. The Pieta broke his heart.
Finding the Pieta Today
On Ash Wednesday five years ago today our hearts were broken by the mass murder at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. The picture of a mother with ashes on her forehead and her child in her arms is a contempoary Pieta.
And here we are again!
On Valentine's Day 2023, the mass murder at Michigan State University became the 67th mass shooting this year. Let that sink in! There is a shooting reported in central Florida almost every day. It should be enough to break our hearts!
At the very same time, the Governor of Florida and his NRA-owned minions are pushing a “permitless carry” law through the Florida Legislature. It will soon be easier to carry a gun than to drive a car.
You can’t make this kind of insanity up! In any sane world, we would be banning assault weapons instread of banning books.
What Will You Do on Ash Wednesday?
One of the readings for Ash Wednesday is Isaiah 58. Based on Isaiah’s words, one of the most religious thing I know to do is to support Prevent Gun Violence Florida. The group’s mission is to reduce and prevent gun crimes, injuries, and deaths via:
- A state ban on all semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices
- Comprehensive universal background checks and ensuring that the State provides all relevant records to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)
- Prevent permitless carry from becoming law in Florida
- Continuing our efforts to defeat unsafe gun legislation including Open Carry and Campus Carry
- Promoting responsible firearm legislation to protect the victims of domestic violence.
On Ash Wednesday I’ll forward this blog to my elected represenatives in both Florida and Washington. I’ll once again call on them to pass universal background checks which are supported by 90% of our citizens.
With a broken heart, it’s the most faithful thing I can do.
Jim Harnish 2022
The Rev. Jim Harnish
The Rev. Jim Harnish is a retired clergy member of the Florida Annual Conference. This post is republished with permission from his blog, JimHarnish.org. Please contact the author for permission to reproduce this content elsewwhere.