A fair question to ask on this
occasion is: Can art be considered a sacrament? If not one of the
traditional “seven sacraments,” art can perhaps be considered
sacramental in nature – offering a glimpse of the presence of the
Living God in our midst and providing a visible expression of the
invisible through human creativity. And in the pattern of the
Divine Creator, the artist places his work and his talent on
display, knowing that men and women are free to draw their own
inspirations, be their own critics, learn their own lessons… just as
we are free to interpret God’s gift of creation, and to draw our own
conclusions from this experience we call life.
Xavier Cortada has created this
image for this school community. It is the image of the namesake of
our school, Bishop Augustin Verot, a man who lived boldly if not
perfectly in demanding and troubling times. I believe it is also an
image our Bishop Verot family today: both who we are and where we
are going. The image tells many stories of the artist’s design, and
will teach many more lessons that Xavier himself could not possibly
have imagined. This is the beautiful and deeply meaningful nature
of the creative process: art, once experienced by others, invites a
variety of interpretations and reactions. Will we find it
beautiful? Will we be inspired? Will we learn something of this
man Augustin Verot, and in the process, of ourselves? Might we even
experience this image as a kind of sacrament – a glimpse of
something important beyond a work of art and beyond the memory of
one man? There is risk indeed in this adventure of creating. And
by viewing it, we enter into this process together.
*
* * * *
In the first chapters of the Bible,
the Book of Genesis teaches us that God created all that is, and
that his creation is good. Therefore, the material world in which
we live – and the very body we possess – though passing back to the
dust from which we came, is innately good and charged with the
presence and artistic, creative genius of God. We human beings are
his finest masterpieces, created in the very image and likeness of
God.
Can there be a more important or
foundational passage in all of Scripture? Rarely has so much been
said in so few words: the notion that we ourselves are a reflection
of the Divine. We are a work of art, simply by being who and what
we are. Simply put, in the eyes of God, we are his most beautiful
and wondrous creation.
But the journey of self-discovery
is not a solitary one. We never stand alone, either in our own
self-understanding, or in God’s eyes. We are a people, not a random
collection of individuals. In tonight’s reading from the twelfth
chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul reminds
us that we are the Body of Christ. Although
each of us reflects God, it is only when we are gathered together
that the individual reflections, in an infinite variety, form the
mosaic that is the truest image of God himself. Each one of us has
a unique role to play, and without even the meekest and most
inconspicuous among us, the body is somehow diminished.
Saint Francis de Sales, the patron
saint of our school, echoed these thoughts 1600 years later when he
wrote: “The church is a garden patterned with unlimited flowers.”
With an amazing array of colors, shapes and sizes, we have been
placed in this beautiful garden in our own unique spot, at a unique
time and place, nothing planted or taken out of season by the Master
Gardener.
And so it is not by coincidence,
but by a sincere desire to answer God’s call, that we use this
unveiling as the occasion to inaugurate the Hotchkiss Memorial
Scholarship Fund, named in honor of a man who dedicated his time and
resources so that those with less economic opportunity could receive
the benefits of a Catholic education. And so, with a gift of the
late Mr. Hotchkiss to set us on our way, and with the proceeds from
this evening as the first contributions, we strive from this day
forward to provide opportunities and resources to needy and
deserving families in Lee County who wish to join the Verot family.
I cannot help but think that the daring and courageous bishop for
whom this school is named would be pleased!
The scholarship fund we establish
tonight will specifically set out to increase economic and ethnic
diversity on our campus. Why be concerned about reaching out to new
students when the resources of the school are already strained to
meet the needs of those already here? It is in order to become who
and what God has called us to be: the Body of Christ, more
accurately reflecting God’s mosaic of creation. Just as Xavier’s
work is made infinitely more beautiful by adding hundreds of
varieties of color reflected in the tiles that compose the image we
see, our school community will be enriched by reaching out to those
in southwest Florida who for whatever reasons do not yet feel that
they can join our family. It is exciting and energizing to imagine
what eyes may view this image five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred
years from tonight… given the opportunity to do so because of the
goals and direction we are establishing here tonight.
To quote Saint Francis de Sales
once again: “We must be who we are, and be that person well.” This
is our vocation: to be ourselves, our true selves. And why not?
Our true calling, after all, never consists in becoming someone
else, or becoming the person we want others to see; it is
discovering who and what we already are. Our Church is called
Catholic – a word that means “universal.” And tonight, we strive to
see in this mosaic the school we are today, and the school we will
become in the future, striving more and more to reflect the
unlimited patterns and beauty of God’s garden. In so doing, our
community takes an important step toward embracing the presence of
God in all people: becoming the Body of Christ, the image of God,
for the entire world to see.
