Sunday, 14 September. Today’s feast, the Exaltation of the Cross, celebrated at the Calvary Altar in the Holy Sepulcher, shone in a new light this year. The liturgy, with Brother Artemio Vitores Custodial Vicar presiding, followed the traditional liturgy. But it is in the strict sense of the word that it was celebrated "in a new light".
As the guardians of the holy places, the Franciscans have a triple function: prayer, spiritual animation, and maintenance. It was the conservation of this heritage that moved them this year to undertake renovations in the Calvary Chapel.
The Holy Sepulcher is similar to a jointly owned property consisting of common spaces and private ones. The Status Quo could be considered as its joint ownership agreement. While all repairs and arrangements, including times for cleaning the common areas - and certainly for their usage - are strictly codified, the private spaces, with their utilization and maintenance, are left to the discretion of the owner.
"The renovations in the Calvary Chapel had to do with the lighting," explains Giuseppe Bellucci, director of the family-run company Bellucci Echi e Luci in Martina Franca, Italy. "They were requested by Brother Michele Piccerillo ofm, president of the Custodial Commission for Sacred Art, who had noticed that the mosaic in that spot was deteriorating due to the heat discharged by two of the lamps. That was the main reason for the renovations. All the lighting was re-examined. We installed LED (light-emitting diode) lamps that, aside from their very low level of electricity consumption, have the advantage of not giving off heat. Moreover, all the lighting was planned to emphasize the site’s architecture." And it’s true that the newly lit Calvary Chapel shows itself in a new way. The mosaics that decorate the vault now benefit from uniform, diffuse light letting them be read like never before. You can sense in Giuseppe the professional satisfaction of an artisan who has done a good job, but if he speaks with so much emotion it is because he is also a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher. And because in this way he has discreetly placed his own stone in the edifice.
It was under this new lighting that the celebration began before a numerous and recollected assembly. In his homily, Brother Artemio Vitores recalled the origins of the feast. It was, in fact, on the 14th of September 335, that the Constantinian Basilica of the Resurrection was dedicated. A feast that in the ancient Church was impregnated with Jewish culture, being inserted into the spirit of the feast of Sukkoth ("the Feast of Booths" or "Tabernacles", often called the "Feast of Tents"). But it is the folly of the Cross, the throne of Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, that Brother Artemio wanted to place at the center of his meditation. "The cross seems like total absurdity, like "senseless suicide", as the philosopher Nietzsche put it. Nevertheless, it is this cross that shelters us, that we exalt because it is the basis of our faith. "Jesus reigned through the cross. Christ was crucified for your salvation, for mine." And it is this salvation, obtained not by the sword but by the wood of the cross, that was celebrated by the assembly today. The adoration of the cross that concluded the celebration was not, therefore, veneration of pain, but gratitude for the salvation the cross obtained for the human race. It is this that allows Christians to sing, "O Cross, our only hope".
MAB
As the guardians of the holy places, the Franciscans have a triple function: prayer, spiritual animation, and maintenance. It was the conservation of this heritage that moved them this year to undertake renovations in the Calvary Chapel.
The Holy Sepulcher is similar to a jointly owned property consisting of common spaces and private ones. The Status Quo could be considered as its joint ownership agreement. While all repairs and arrangements, including times for cleaning the common areas - and certainly for their usage - are strictly codified, the private spaces, with their utilization and maintenance, are left to the discretion of the owner.
"The renovations in the Calvary Chapel had to do with the lighting," explains Giuseppe Bellucci, director of the family-run company Bellucci Echi e Luci in Martina Franca, Italy. "They were requested by Brother Michele Piccerillo ofm, president of the Custodial Commission for Sacred Art, who had noticed that the mosaic in that spot was deteriorating due to the heat discharged by two of the lamps. That was the main reason for the renovations. All the lighting was re-examined. We installed LED (light-emitting diode) lamps that, aside from their very low level of electricity consumption, have the advantage of not giving off heat. Moreover, all the lighting was planned to emphasize the site’s architecture." And it’s true that the newly lit Calvary Chapel shows itself in a new way. The mosaics that decorate the vault now benefit from uniform, diffuse light letting them be read like never before. You can sense in Giuseppe the professional satisfaction of an artisan who has done a good job, but if he speaks with so much emotion it is because he is also a knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher. And because in this way he has discreetly placed his own stone in the edifice.
It was under this new lighting that the celebration began before a numerous and recollected assembly. In his homily, Brother Artemio Vitores recalled the origins of the feast. It was, in fact, on the 14th of September 335, that the Constantinian Basilica of the Resurrection was dedicated. A feast that in the ancient Church was impregnated with Jewish culture, being inserted into the spirit of the feast of Sukkoth ("the Feast of Booths" or "Tabernacles", often called the "Feast of Tents"). But it is the folly of the Cross, the throne of Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, that Brother Artemio wanted to place at the center of his meditation. "The cross seems like total absurdity, like "senseless suicide", as the philosopher Nietzsche put it. Nevertheless, it is this cross that shelters us, that we exalt because it is the basis of our faith. "Jesus reigned through the cross. Christ was crucified for your salvation, for mine." And it is this salvation, obtained not by the sword but by the wood of the cross, that was celebrated by the assembly today. The adoration of the cross that concluded the celebration was not, therefore, veneration of pain, but gratitude for the salvation the cross obtained for the human race. It is this that allows Christians to sing, "O Cross, our only hope".
MAB