March 20: Nativity, Pieta and Second Birth
♫ Music:
Friday, March 20
Scripture: Luke 2:34-35
And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
NATIVITY, PIETA AND SECOND BIRTH
Whom did Mary bear? The “Man of Sorrows,” and one “acquainted with grief” (Is. 53:3). She bore one who was to be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (53:5). And did she treasure these things in her heart, as she did the events surrounding his birth (Luke 2:19)? Surely it was this that pierced her soul (Luke 2:35).
In Bellini’s Madonna del Prado, a beautiful young Mary contemplates the infant Christ, sleeping on her lap. Bellini’s Pietà takes up and repeats this theme, some thirty years later. Again, the countryside and city in the background. Again, Mary contemplating her son—just taken down from the cross.
What should we make of this horrible juxtaposition?
In the background of the nativity, we see a vulture in a dead tree—a sign of immanent death. And just to the left of Mary, we see a stork, killing a snake—calling to mind Jesus’ cosmic battle against Satan. Here we find quiet witnesses of the impending confrontation of Christ with evil and death. Likewise in the Pietà: behind Mary and the dead Messiah, we see a field of flowers—Easter lilies, the sign of the resurrection. These paintings interweave the incarnation and death of Christ, while each in its own way mingles together themes of life and death.
Whom did Mary bear in her womb? She bore one destined to die—but this is but one small part of his story (a deep magic indeed, for fans of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, but not the deepest). This is the first part of Jesus’ work, the downward movement charted in Phil. 2:5-8. But this was not all that Mary bore, not all that she knew and treasured up in her heart. For there is a deeper magic still, a deeper purpose in this work of Jesus: a second birth.
Whom did Mary bear? One destined to a second birth, the second birth. Bellini’s paintings integrate life and death, demanding that we think of the two together as we enter into the spirit of Lent. For the true birth of Christ, the one we celebrate at the very heart of our faith, the true and full incarnation, was not the one in the first painting, but the one it anticipates, the one which we together with Mary treasure in our hearts: Christ’s rebirth, his place and role as the “firstborn of the dead” (Col. 1:18).
Whom did Mary bear? The one through whom she too would be born again. But in this period prior to Easter, we look primarily to the first birth, the birth unto death, and the intersection of the Nativity/Pietà.
PRAYER
Father, help us, like Mary, to contemplate your dear Son. May we ponder while following him in this way of death, that we might likewise delight while following him in his way of life.
Amen.
Adam Johnson, Professor of Theology, Torrey Honors Institute
Madonna del Prado & Pietà
Giovanni Bellini
1505
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy
Oil on Wood
&
Stabat Mater, Movement X
Music composed by Richard Prior
Performed by the Emory Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Video created by William Brown
Center for Creativity in the Arts
Emory University
Video
About the Artist & Art
Giovanni Bellini (1430–1516) was the most famous in a family of Venetian Renaissance painters. He was a pioneer in Italian Renaissance methods and is known for his use of natural light, rich color, and naturalistic style. A popular and prosperous artist, Bellini was the conservator of paintings in the Hall of the Great Council in Venice from 1479 until his death. Most of his works were biblical narratives. He painted altarpieces for churches all over Italy, and other scenes, particularly Madonnas, as commissions for individuals and families. His studio included pupils who later went on to surpass their master, such as Giorgione and Titian.
The Pietà was painted as a devotional aid for a private donor. The angles of the pose, especially the awkward position of Christ's hand, are sharp and reminiscent of Albrech Dürer's work. Madonna del Prado (Madonna of the Meadow), painted the same year, is full of symbolism. In the background, by Mary's elbow, a pelican (an ancient symbol for Christ) struggles with a serpent.
About the Video
Richard Prior is a Senior Lecturer in Composition and Director of Orchestral Studies at Emory University, he conducts and directs multiple choirs at Emory and nearby. He has also appeared with orchestras around the world and in the USA. Prior has been writing music since childhood and his compositions are performed and recorded internationally. Stabat Mater Movement X (A New Media Version of a 13th Century Hymn) was composed in 2003. Throughout the centuries many renowned composers have set the traditional text of the Stabat Mater to music.
http://richardprior.org
Stabat Mater Lyrics
O how grievous was the pain you suffered
When you recalled your former joys.
The Mother stood, as a red rose.
O how grievous was the pain you suffered
When you recalled your former joys.
Now all turned to lamentation
All the life drained from you,
Mother while you stood there.
About the Music
Mary Did You Know? lyrics
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has walked where angels trod?
When you kissed your little baby
You've kissed the face of God.
The blind will see, the deaf will hear,
And the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy
Is Heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the great 'I Am.'
About the Musician & Composer
Southern gospel group the Gaither Vocal Band began in the early 1980s with an impromptu performance during a Bill Gaither Trio concert. The group roster has shifted and changed over the years, but the group has remained popular and prolific: nineteen of their twenty-seven albums have charted. The current lineup consists of David Phelps, Wes Hampton, Adam Crabb, Todd Suttles, and Bill Gaither.
http://gaither.com/artists/gaither-vocal-band-0
Mary Did You Know? was written by comedian and singer-songwriter Mark Lowry (b. 1958), who was a member of the Gaither Vocal Band from 1988–2001 and then again from 2009–2013. In 1984, Lowry was asked to write a song for Advent. He came up with questions he might ask Mary about her son, Jesus. These questions were used before each scene of the song. Six years later, harmonica virtuoso Buddy Green wrote the music. Since then, Mary Did You Know? has been recorded by more that 30 artists and is a favorite Christmas hymn for millions of Christians around the world.
http://marklowry.com/about/