The Celtic cross, with the circle forming a frame for the intersecting pieces of the Christian cross, is a beautiful symbol of the balance between heaven and earth, soil and seas, flesh and spirit, grace and grit that Celtic spirituality offers. In the Celtic cross we see divine beauty, symmetry, and balance demonstrated by the circle juxtaposed by the reality of suffering, injustice, sacrifice, and redemption demonstrated by the symbol of the Cross. These two contrasting symbols are held together by the non-dualistic theology and thought that exists within Celtic spirituality.
It makes sense for the circle to be a divine symbol. When
we look into the heavens, we see the bright circular sun that lights and warms
the day, and the translucent moon, when in its fullness, glows in the night sky,
the most beautiful of circles. When we look out into the distance, we observe
the curvature of the horizon, and with each passing day we watch the sun make
its semi-circle journey from its eastern rising to its western setting; the
moon following its path by night. Each year, the seasons come to us in their
due time and order, marking the annual journey from the rest and conception of
winter to the harvest and dying of autumn. This ancient and eternal pattern is
seen in our own Catholic faith as we walk the seasons of the Christ, from his
conception to his resurrection through the holy seasons of the church.
Here at St. Andrew, we have been contemplating the symbol
of the circle and what it can teach us in our day; the idea that in a circle,
people are facing each other offering mutual commitment to maintain the balance
and integrity of the circle. A circle can only be a circle when left is in sync
with right, when top and bottom maintain a rotational exchange of position. In
a circle, members do not form parallel and opposing lines facing off against
one another, but instead each hold a place at the periphery, living together in
balance around shared ideas and purpose, even while holding diverse position
and perspective.
Our lives consist of circles: the circle of our
relationships, the family circles, the friendship circles, our community
circles, our business, religious, political, and world circles. If mutual
affection and respect are not practiced and maintained, then what we are left
with ceases to be a circle: but instead become broken and opposing lines and
fragments; and God in Christ is not fragment, but is the whole circle in which
all move and breath and have their being.
When Patrick brought the message of Christianity to the Celtic
culture of Ireland, he himself was converted to the divine symbol of the
circle. The circle was the template by which the system of Celtic society was
developed. He did not find the hierarchical pyramid, or distinct lines and strata
of classes prevalent in the Roman Empire, but instead he found tightly formed
and decentralized clans. Patrick introduced the message of Christ, a man in
whom god was incarnate, thus joining heaven with earth, flesh with spirit.
Christ was the sacrament of God, the outward and visible
manifestation of the invisible mystery and grace of the divine. In Jesus, the
Christ, the circle was evident by the Lord of all becoming a servant, the
almighty becoming vulnerable, the holy one taking upon the harsh realities of
great suffering and cruelty and pain, eternal life taking upon death. The
circle was shown with the shame of our lives being embraced and absolved by the
grace of God’s love. The circle was shown by how this Jesus himself became a
chieftain, who gathered around himself a small circle of disciples and
followers, who, though he was the eternal light, did not seek a throne or a
kingdom, but instead walked the way of the poor, the powerless, the sick, the
peasant, and the poet.
Being the eternal light he entered the darkness of the
tomb. Jesus did not rule, he taught. Jesus did not condemn, he absolved. Jesus
did not hurt or threaten, he healed and redeemed. Jesus was the great circle
who turned our lives and our world upside down. He brought together, east with
west, north with south, jew with gentile, male with female and showed all of
creation that we are not fragmented or separate from each other, but co-exist
in the great circle that is the Christ.
We are in a time of examining and contemplating the
conditions of the circles in our own life and time; the way we live with
ourselves, our family, our parish, our community, our nation, and our world. We
are contemplating the conditions of our culture and society, and we are asking
what will heal our own sense of isolation, what will mend our tattered and torn
society?
I believe the Celtic cross, with its marriage of the
encompassing circle around the harsh but redemptive cross gives to us the path
of bringing together the great diversity and contrasting perspectives of our
times. This symbol for us becomes a powerful totem that heals where the circles
and bonds of community have been broken, with the love and redemption that God
has made incarnate in the world through the life, teaching, and suffering of
Christ symbolized by the Cross.
May our own circles be healed as we practice the ways of
humility and forgiveness, grace and hospitality. May our own circles be healed
as we renew our attention and our affection for all who share the circles of
family, of parish, of city, of nation, and of world. May we choose to be healers
and teachers. May we choose to serve instead of control, may we choose to
listen instead of opinionate. May we build bridges instead of walls. May we see
our life and our world with same view as that of the countless satellites that
orbit our planet see – a beautiful and holy circle; guided along a symmetrical
path by invisible forces. Held together by diverse and countless factors working
together to sustain and inspire our world.
