THE MOSAIC PROBLEM

 I would like to invite you to come with me for a few moments to the Holy City of Rome, to St. Peter’s Basilica. Stand with me in the middle of that vast empty space surrounded by the  beautiful windows and architecture and monumental statues 12 feet tall.

Then look, if you will, at the beautiful murals: Here’s one 15 feet tall of Jesus handing to Peter the keys of the kingd0m. Here’s one of the crucifixion of St. Andrew. High overhead at the base of the dome notice the colorful circular portraits of the four evangelists.

But now I want you to walk over with me to the scene of Jesus handing to Peter the keys of the kingdom. Get real close, and take a good look. You’ll see that it’s not a painting at all! It’s a mosaic! (There are no paintings in the Basilica. They’re all mosaics.) 

This masterpiece is made up of thousands of tiny bits of marble and glass. Now lean really close, until your nose is almost touching it (this is an imaginary visit, so you don’t need to worry about the guard shouting at you.)

Imagine what you’d see: a segment the size of a book of matches, made up of a few random bits of colored marble that make no sense at all. This tiny sample of the mosaic may even look dark and ugly.

St. Augustine writes somewhere that God’s Divine Plan is like that: We’re taught that

God has this grand, beautiful design for the world, but when we try to understand that plan for us, especially when we try to make sense of tragedies such as nine-eleven, or hurricane Ida,  we get frustrated because these events make no sense. We can’t see their purpose, so we ask “Why does God allow such awful things to happen: its absurd!” And we get angry and frustrated.

Well, here is where the virtue of “Hope” comes in. Hope is the virtue that allows us to live our lives each day in the confidence that there’s a lot more to God’s Great Mosaic than we can ever understand, but it’s there just the same, filled with love and beauty beyond our comprehension. But we don’t get to see the whole thing until we get to heaven. 

Then, when the Lord invites us home, we finally come to see that all along, all the pieces including evils and suffering, fit perfectly in the mosaic and belonged just where they were. Like pieces of black marble in a mosaic of the resurrection. And we cry out “Oh! How beautiful!”

But for right now we stand here staring in frustration at our few ugly bits of marble, the tiny patch of the mosaic that we’re able to see while here on earth. We’ve all had that feeling a few times in our lives.

But the good news is that sometimes, as we stand staring at our incomprehensible bit of the picture, there comes along someone who by his or her life invites us to step back, away from the mosaic,  far enough that we can start of make out some of its shape, some of its beautiful meaning.

By our loving words and selfless actions, we can offer one another precious glimpses of  what the Divine Mosaic looks like, what life is really about. Often without realizing the gift we’re giving to others we can give them the courage to believe that ultimately our lives have a meaning. They have a meaning because they're part of the Divine  Mosaic. And the Mosaic, is, of course, all about love.