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Agony and Ecstasy
I just finished reading The Agony
and the Ecstasy, a portrayal of the life of Michelangelo, famed
Italian painter, sculptor, poet and architect. Best known as the
creator of the sculpture David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and
the dome at St. Peter’s, Michelangelo was, indeed, a composite
of agony and ecstasy. While acknowledging that his ability to create
works of unimaginable beauty was a gift from God, he was also tormented
by a genius described as a "God-driven fury."
Believing that humanity struggles
endlessly between the physical and spiritual, Michelangelo’s
work reveals this constant tension between agony and ecstasy. These
opposing forces were seen before Michelangelo even began a sculpture.
He climbed high into the mountains to work with stonecutters, picking
out the perfect piece of marble. He stood before the gigantic stone
he had chosen and sensed "signs of life" coming from
within. Later, after sketching an outline on the front of the marble,
he chiseled furiously, explaining he was "liberating the figure
from the marble that imprisons it." The resultant sculpture
always captured this tension between humanity’s liberation
and imprisonment.
Five hundred years later, as students
of metaphysics, we know we are blessed with the ability to sharpen
our own sculpting tools and liberate ourselves from the marble that
imprisons us. We know we have a choice to live as though the block
of marble we see is all there is or to chip away at the stone, setting
free an individual of unique and remarkable beauty.
Often, we opt to accept the block
as the finished piece. We tend and polish it, doing everything possible
to enhance the stone’s unnecessary portions that are composed
of false beliefs we have created: fear, envy, busyness, anger, issues
around aging, or dozens of others. We think these are the actual
sculpture, when in fact they are the marble that keeps us trapped.
As children of God, our core is
the very essence of our being. Through spiritual practice and faith-based
living, we have the ability to chisel away at our marble, sensing,
as Michelangelo did, the "signs of life" waiting to
be revealed from within.
Think for a moment about having
the ability to chisel through the agony and liberate the ecstasy
that is your true nature. What does your sculpture look like? What
beautiful child of God is waiting to be liberated from imprisonment
if only you chipped away at the marble?
It would have been a tremendous
loss to the world if Michelangelo had stood before a block of marble
and simply seen a block of marble. It would be equally unfortunate
if you did the same. Pick up your hammer and chisel and begin removing
that part of the marble that hides your true self, an extraordinarily
beautiful sculpture just waiting to be revealed.
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