|
Changing
Mistakes into Art
Fr.
George Smiga
September
24/25, 2005
Matthew
21:28-32
This
August, I attended the National Conference of the Catholic
Biblical Association, which this year was taking place in
Collegeville , Minnesota . The Benedictine Monks of the Abbey
of St. John's in Collegeville were the hosts for the event.
What was particularly interesting to the scholars who work
in the area of the Bible was the historic project that the
monks in Collegeville have undertaken. In the year 2000, to
mark the millennium, they decided to do something which had
not been done in over five hundred years. They commissioned
a completely hand-transcribed copy of the Bible. They secured
the services of Donald Jackson, who is the calligrapher to
the Queen of England, to head the project. Mr. Jackson, together
with about ten other scribes, have been working regularly
since the year 2000, transcribing every word of the Bible,
sentence by sentence, page by page. Presently, they are about
three quarters finished. In the traditional style, they are
not only transcribing the words of the Bible but also including
artistic illustrations to illuminate the text. The monks intend
this Bible to last. Each of the pages, which measures about
one by two feet, is made out of sheepskin. A rare Indian ink
is used for the calligraphy. The hope is that a thousand years
from now, God willing, the St. John Bible will still survive
and still be read.
Now,
as you can imagine, the monks are very proud of this project.
At our conference, they scheduled a special session to explain
the Bible and to answer questions from the scholars gathered
at Collegeville. The monk who led this session, first clarified
why his community chose this particular project: “It was our
desire to create a Bible with the human touch. The Word of
God is central to our community. We wanted the artistic skill,
patience, and commitment of an actual written Bible to convey
the supreme value the scriptures hold in our lives.”
One
of the scholars at the session asked, “What steps have you
taken to make sure that in transcribing the words of the Bible,
you are doing it accurately? We all know that in copying something
it is easy to make mistakes.” The monk responded, “We are
following the ancient tradition of copyists. After we finish
a page, we count all the syllables on the page and then count
all the syllables on the original page. If the number is the
same, it is a strong confirmation that the copying has been
correct.” Another scholar joined in, “Did you find any mistakes?”
“Yes,” the monk said. “Perhaps the most notable one occurred
in the Gospel of Mark. After we had copied the page that includes
the parable of the sower, we discovered that we had left out
an entire line.” The questioner continued, “It must have been
difficult for you, after all of that work, to throw away that
page and start over.” The monk responded, “We did not start
over.” “What did you do?” the questioner asked. The monk took
a deep breath, “What we did was write the missing line on
the bottom of the page in a box and then drew a little string
around the box placing its end in the beak of a small bird
that was flying up the margin of the page and dragging that
line back to the place where it should have been written.”
There
was a gasp in the room and hands went up all around: “Why
didn't you copy the page over? Was it too expensive? Could
you not have raised more money? Why did you not make the page
right?” The monk held up his hands, “Friends,” he said, “you
misunderstand the purpose of this project. We wanted to create
a Bible with a human touch. Whenever something is human, it
always includes mistakes. We wanted our Bible to reflect life.
In life you are not given the chance to erase your mistakes.
Your only choice is to admit the mistake and then move on.
In our Bible we wanted to show that, even with the mistake,
the page remains a work of art.”
This
detail about the St. John's Bible points to a fundamental
truth. We do not have the opportunity to erase the mistakes
of our lives. We cannot go back and live them over. Our only
choice is to admit what is wrong and move on—not forgetting
to appreciate the beauty that still surrounds us. This is
what the first son does in today's Gospel. When his father
asks him to work in the vineyard, he says “no.” That was a
mistake. Yet he does not allow his “no” to rule his future.
His admits his fault and finally does the Father's will. I
am sure that the son would have preferred to take his “no”
back. But what is said cannot be unsaid. His only choice was
to live from that point forward as a faithful and obedient
son.
The
Gospel tells us that since we are human, we will make mistakes.
Yet those mistakes do not need to control us. We may wish
we could take back the hurtful things that we may have said
in anger to our father or to our spouse. But those words are
said and cannot be changed. Our only choice is to admit they
were wrong and then live as better sons and daughters and
spouses. We might wish that we never lied or cheated or let
someone down who was depending on us. But we cannot go back
and change the past. We can only admit our failure and then
live in greater integrity and generosity. We might wish deeply
that our marriage never ended in divorce. But we cannot go
back and change it. We can only admit what we have done that
is wrong and then move forward, choosing to love those who
are willing to love us in return.
Today's
Gospel makes it clear that mistakes are final, but life is
not. Our God continues to provide new opportunities, new chances,
through which we can grow and live. The only way to take advantage
of those opportunities is to admit our faults and then choose
life.
A
thousand years from now, if the dream of the monks is fulfilled,
the St. John's Bible will still
exist. If it does, the mistake in the parable of the sower
will exist as well. Yet I do not think that those who may
read that Bible in the next millennium will think any less
of it because the mistake is still on the page. Hopefully
they will realize that such a flaw points to a truth which
is centered on the gospel—God's goodness is greater than our
faults; God's future can overcome our mistakes; and if we
are willing to admit what we have done that is wrong, our
failures need not destroy us. In fact, once they are acknowledged,
our mistakes somehow become part of the complex work of art
that God is creating out of the stuff of our lives.
|
