The fourth century Catacomb of Saint Sebastian at Rome contains some of the earliest surviving examples of Christian art in the form of frescoed wall paintings, including some of the Nativity. The scenes depicted in the Nativity paintings are drawn from the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, but one of them bears a quote in Latin not from either of them but from Saint John's Gospel; "et Verbum caro factum,” - “and the Word became flesh.”

For centuries since that time the Gospel Nativity narratives have been the subject of many of the most beautiful and moving works of art ever created. They have awed and inspired literally millions of people of a multitude of languages unknown to their artists because those truly great works speak to the human heart more eloquently than any words ever can.
Now think of the most effective and affecting Christmas story paintings that you have ever seen. They may be of the angels appearing to Joseph in a dream or to the shepherds in their fields or of the Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem or of the Holy Family around the manger or simply of the Madonna and the infant Christ. I would be willing to wager that nine out of ten of you would recall paintings dating from the late medieval period (Giotto) to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, and very few of us would immediately recall anything painted in the last hundred years. Why? What happened?

I'm certainly not able to give a definitive answer to that, but I would like to make a few suggestions. From about the eighteenth century on artists began to turn away from Christian themes and began to focus more on historical or classical mythological ones. As time went on that focus shifted to portraiture, landscapes, and scenes of daily life (sometimes realistically, often in a romanticized or sentimental way) in the world around them. They became more interested in depicting our human material world with no concern for any spiritual meaning beyond this world.

The triumph of the Impressionists was the logical outcome of this trend.  Their paintings were intended not to convey objective reality so much as to represent the artists' impressions of that world as they saw it. The real subject of these works was not the physical objects portrayed, much less any deeper spiritual reality behind those objects; the real subjects were the artists themselves.

The next development was “modern art” (described only somewhat unfairly by Tom Wolfe as “what happens when ambition meets lack of talent"), which often had no objective reference even to the material world, much less the spiritual one (Jackson Pollock, anyone?). All of this brings us to a banana taped to a wall being called art and selling for over six million dollars. Separating art from spiritual meaning has reduced it from any eternally important spiritual meaning at all.

That is, in my opinion, why the works that move us the most were created long ago before most of the Western world began to value the realities of this transient physical and material world more than, and often to the entire exclusion of, the spiritual and truly timeless realities revealed and embodied in the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the fourth century B.C. Aristotle wrote that “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."  Western artists of earlier times were not self-obsessed with their own opinions or impressions but rather were attempting through their art to represent timeless deeper truths of the Christian faith. That is why Michelangelo could say, “A man paints with his brains and not with his hands," and, “The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.”

This is not to say that the great Western artists of the past were perfected saints devoid of earthly weaknesses. Some lived admirable lives, but many of them were notorious sinners and even criminals. Take for example Caravaggio, a violent and sensually immoral man, whose religious paintings are immensely powerful. His paintings weren't exercises in self-expression, they were and are heart-piercingly potent expressions of the spiritual realities made known in what the Church teaches about the love of God shown forth in the life of Christ and His saints.

The power of that older Christian art comes not merely from the talent of the artists that created it but also from the fact that those artists were using that talent to express something far greater than themselves or the world in which they lived. Those wonderful Nativity paintings that you remember are not just about mother love and the joy of welcoming a new life into the world any more than Michelangelo's Pieta' is just about earthly death and grief. What they are about is those words of Saint John that are the source of what was painted with that Nativity scene on the wall of the Catacomb of Saint Sebastian some seventeen centuries ago: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

It's not just Christmas. It's The Feast of the Incarnation of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

-- Father Bragg+

P.S. You've heard people complain about "taking Christ out of Christmas," haven't you? Well, they're right, it isn't really Christmas without Christ. But it isn't really Christmas without Mass, either. Come to church, and, if possible, bring a friend.
 

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Services & Events

Sunday Services, 7:45 AM, 9:00 AM, & 11:15 AM (for online participation for the services go to: https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland) 

Sunday School, 10:30 AM

Nursery 9:00 & 11:15 Services

Christmas Services
Christmas Eve Services, 7:00 PM & 11:00 PM
Christmas Day Service, 12 noon

Vestry Meeting, Monday December 28, 7:30 PM
CURRENT LlST OF NEEDS FOR MaRIH CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER

With the upcoming celebration of the Birth of Our Savior, please help MaRIH Center now. The need is great and urgent this time of year. With its all volunteer staff the Center provides help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need.  Please provide some of the items that are needed.. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)

Especially Needed
 In Bold and with an asterisk are a critical need.

Diapers (sizes newborn, *1, 2, 3, *4, *5, & *6)
*Lovies
*Baby wipes
*Diaper rash ointment
*Baby shampoo
*Baby blankets
*Baby bottles
*Bibs toddler
*Formula: *Simulac Advance Formula
Formula: other but not recalled
*Wash clothes
*Hooded towels
*Fall Winter clothing: 3-6 mo, 2T
*Winter coats 2T
*Grocery gift cards
 
Food Bank Needs

The food bank appreciates the generosity of our parish.Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Those we help feed are very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar).  Current needs include the following:
canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
peanut butter
jelly
tuna
canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
 individual fruit cups (low sugar)
canned fruit (low sugar)
canola or vegetable oil (48 oz)
boxed cereal (low sugar) and instant or old fashioned oatmeal (18 oz or 42 oz)
pasta (regular and gluten-free):
instant potatoes
single serving fruit juice
macaroni & cheese
soups: Chunky or Progresso,noodle soup; chicken broth, cream of mushroom
coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
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