• first sunday in advent

  
  An Italian painter named Andrea Mantegna was gifted with the ability to create unique perspectives in his oil paintings. Shortly after 1450, at twenty-one years of age, he painted a scene of the Nativity that is full of deep symbolism. In the middle Renaissance, the artisans translated their prayers and meditations into symbolic artwork. Mantegna did this marvelously with his painting of The Adoration of the Shepherds.
  
  Regarding tyhe painting, here are some of Mategna's insights:
  
  Mary the New Eve
  

  • Mary is depicted in her traditional blue and red clothing, and she is kneeling under a fruit tree.  Originally, we all lost our salvation "under a fruit tree" in the Garden of Eden.  There, Eve took the fruit and ate it.  Here now, the New Eve, Mary, under a fruit tree, gives us back our Salvation in the person of Jesus.
  • Behind Mary, a part of he stable is designed to give the appearance of a ladder that climvs to heaven.  Mantegna is showing us that Mary as our Mother and heavenly intercessor is a ladder to help us to heaven.

  
  Joseph, the Hidden King

  • Joseh is clothed in royal garments instead of a humble carpenter's clothing.  He is sleeping because, Joseph always obeyed the plans of God that came to him in his dreams.  Thus, his dreamy state reflects hs holiness,  
  • Joseph is "of the house and family" of King David, and so he is part of the royal family.  He is a "hidden king", but so is the Child Jesus.  The two shepherds approaching are looking for the newborn king and seem to mistake Joseph for Jesus.

  
  The Good Shepherds

  • In the foreground, the good shepherds who approach Jesus are coming as they are, in tattered clothing and hats to hands.  They approach Jesus, ascending from below, and Mantegna turns the stable floor into a raised altar.  
  • Thus, the good shepherds also teach us how we should approach the altar today.  As the good shehpherds came in gratitude and humility to receive the historical advent of Jesus, so should we approach the altar today in gratitude and humility to receive the hidden advent of Jesus in the Eucharist.

  
  
  In the Christ we share, Fr. Joh J. Gordon OMI