A beautiful, sunny autumn day proved irresistible…and so I found myself outdoors, exploring The Way.
That happens to be the title of the signature piece at Laumeier Sculpture Park – big, bold and all ablaze in Cadmium red…under a bright blue October sky.
Where’s “The Way”?
So big is this sculpture that it captured my attention in a peculiar fashion: I wanted to understand its “how”? And its “why”? Where does an artist get the idea for something like this…and how on earth does he (or she) make it happen?
Towering achievement…
Such intellectual deconstructionism is the bane of an artist’s vision, I suppose. And as I continued exploring, I was intrigued to discover the name Alexander Liberman had given his work: The Way.
The name puzzled me, since the piece doesn’t seem to point in any specific direction.
Or perhaps, I realized, it’s my perspective that’s faulty.
Wander about the sculpture a bit, and soon it becomes clear how little of it I can actually see, all at one time. Its mass dwarfs my field of vision. So is there a “way” in it…that’s simply shielded from my puny view?
The delight I discovered in this line of questions…turned into blessing a day or two later, when I found myself vexed by a different sort of puzzle.
Like many Catholics, I’ve been angered and confused in recent days to contemplate the sorry state of our official leadership – here in the US, certainly; and increasingly, by the entrenched powers-that-be in Rome. I am mortified by the prospect I see unfolding before my eyes: Faithful Catholics, taking sides: “I belong to Pope Francis,” asserts one group. “Cardinal Burke is more my guy,” fumes the other.
No clear or simple Way out…
And I am left to wonder: Where is The Way through this cesspool of Vatican vitriol?
Then it occurs to me to consider how Alexander Liberman has turned junk – a collection of salvaged steel oil tanks – into an enduring, signature piece of art at Laumeier Sculpture Park.
My Lord, my Christ, is certainly no less a talent than Liberman.
In fact, scripture tells us, my Lord is The Way.
Which is to say, my Lord is bigger than Vatican politics. Indeed, my Lord is even beyond time – in God’s eyes, “a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone” (Ps 90).
And so perhaps I would do well to meditate on the vastness of my Lord – especially when it seems that we’ve lost our way…and that many of God’s sinful servants are headed in no fruitful direction.
I would do well to bless the Lord, whose ways are often surprising…and always, far beyond my ways.
Yes, I would do well to bless the Lord, and pray that I be given new eyes to see.
A beautiful Way, often beyond my ability to see…
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 
Thanks John. As I sit and rant about the negative ads on TV, our government leadership, and the Catholic child abuse crisis, your article helped me step back from all my tiny rants to see the big picture. He is the way, for all, for ever.
Amen, Tom. And may the Lord grant us —all of us—new eyes to see!
Thank you, John. An important thought to ponder. Thomas Keating died this week and I have been thinking of him and what his teaching meant to me. I need to return to silence and be still with God. I must remember that the Lord is still the Lord. I also pray that I will be given new eyes to see.
The Lord’s ways are far beyond my ways, our ways…
And when I sit with that mystery, I realize I don’t wanna have it any other Way…
Thanks for reading along, Dan!