Here is the sketch of an altarpiece, a Triptych if you will, I’d create if I was the master of a medieval artists’ guild. It is also a theological reflection on Pentecost… after all: all art is a theological reflection, for better or for worse.
Pannel 1. ‘Over the waters of the Deep’
The Spirit, painted in bright lazurite chiaroscuro and gold-white against otherwise total darkness, over-shadows the womb of the world (Gen 1:2). For while the Heavens seems to spring into being with all of their celestial splendor and panoply of seraphs and many-eyed beasts and orders of choirs and thrones, the World, waits attendant on the Word of God.
Over that formless and empty World beat the wings of the Spirit. The Spirit arrives to bring the life of the Logos who is in the beginning with God, the Logos who is God (Jn. 1:1-4).
Perhaps at the margins of the image, along the darkest edges, we might speckle small ruminations of the stars and the heavenly spheres which already long to crown the whole creation with the glory of her Author (Ps. 19:1).
Pannel 2. ‘Over the womb of the Virgin’
Deep cerulean, so painfully blue and brilliant, burns in the robe of Mary of Nazareth. Her color palette matches the Spirit. Once again the Spirit over-shadows the yet unformed womb of the world (Lk. 1:35). Once again the Logos, the Word of the Father, is spoken (Lk. 1:26-33).
“Let there be light” is transformed by “you shall conceive and bear a Son” (Cf. Gen 1:3; Lk. 1:31). That Son who shall be conceived is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12), and the Sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings (Mal. 4:2). Once again the Spirit “hovers” to bring new life and glory.
If my journey-men and I can make it work we shall paint the image so that aureate flashes from the hallow of the embryonic GodMan intertwine with the aurora of his mother’s crown of stars.
Pannel 3. ‘A wind from Heaven’
In the final pannel we complement the blues of Mary’s robe and the bright lazuli of Heaven from whence the Spirit descends with the warmth of cinnabar and minium. Here again, the Spirit hovers, rushing like a wind, filling the room, even as he filled Creation and the Womb of Mary (Acts 2:2).
Red and vermillion color the tongued flames which diadem the disciples in the upper-room (Acts 2:3). That fire is the Word, the Voice of the Lord, the Logos, whose flashes re flames of fire (Ps. 29:7). Once again the Spirit has hovered over the yet-unformed and brought-forth a new creation: The Church (2 Cor. 5:17).
By the gift of the Spirit the Living Word has come to dwell within us (Ps. 119:11; Jn. 14:23; Rom. 5:5; 2 Tim. 1:14), burning in our hearts (Lk. 24:32), crowning us with glory and honor (Rom. 8:17; Rev. 2:10; cf. Ps. 8 and Heb 2:9), so that we shine like lights in the firmament (Dan. 12:3). But that glory is not ours alone, it is a shared glory and a gifted glory; it is His Glory in us (Col. 1:27).
One cannot quite make out where the corona of the Fire of the Word of God ends and the hallow which chaplets each saint begins (Jn. 17:22), being now forever intertwined. He said he would not share his glory with any other (Is. 42:8) but we are now not another, we are his beloved (Songs 6:3; 1 Thess. 1:4-5), sharing in the inheritance of the saints in light (Col. 1:12). He is the Living Flame of Love (Deut. 4:24; Songs 8:6; Heb. 12:29; 1 Jn 4:8) and we are come to dwell in the everlasting burnings (Is. 33:14; Heb. 10:31).
Inscription (on the Lintel of the reredos):
He lapalapa ahi ko kakou akua.
Ua hele mai mākou e noho i ka lapalapa mau loa.