More bad weather warnings issued for today, but they don't seem to have applied to South Wales, except that overnight there was heavy rain. The wind blew away early showers, so we had sunshine for much of the day. This was a relief, as I had a funeral at Pidgeon's Chapel followed by burial at Western Cemetery at the end of the morning. When I got back I cooked lunch in time for Clare's return from study group and then walked for an hour. The Taff at Blackweir was running higher than yesterday, but the water was not yet covering the top of the fish ladder, as it does several times each winter.
On my return, I drafted next Sunday's Harvest sermon, full of sombre thoughts in the light of the crisis in agriculture, with crops rotting in the fields, animals culled and destroyed instead of slaughtered for meat, all due to lack of pickers, slaughterers and butchers, and drivers to transport food to market. It's symptomatic of the UK government's inability to envisage the whole picture or plan adequately for the future. The lack of coherent action to address these crisis needs is pushing food prices up and is likely to lead to food shortages. Those who will suffer most are those who are poor and just about managing. I see a real possibility of social unrest as a consequence.
This evening on Sky Arts there was a two hour long documentary about the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican., mischievously entitled 'The Michaelangelo Code' parodying Dan Brown's ridiculous pulp fiction thrillers. It investigated the significance of the frescoes which are Michaelangelo's masterpiece and how they can be interpreted in the light of the Franciscan era in Renaissance history. Pope Sixtus and his nephew successor Pope Julius were both Friars. Sixtus built the chapel, modelled on the biblical proportions of the second Temple in Jerusalem. Julius commissioned Michaelangelo for the fresco painting, imposing an esoteric understanding of prophetic scripture upon a work. designed to reveal the end time of creation before Judgement Day.
It was esoteric in the sense that some of the symbolism and the depiction of certain prophets, underpinned their belief that they personally were destined to prepare the way for the Second Coming. A good enough justification for they way they exercised Papal power. Julius believed he was to build the new Jerusalem on earth, but this time in Rome. He had the thousand year old basilica of St Peter demolished and commissioned the construction of the present basilica. The dome was of Michaelangelo's design, though the building took another 200 years to complete. That's quite a vanity project!
It was a long and complex story vividly told by art historian Waldemar Januszczak, filmed on location in Rome, Jerusalem and Portugal. It was introduced and closed by sections on the Waco massacre in 1993 of members of the Branch Davidian sect, which bases its belief in the imminence of the end of the world on much the same texts used underpin the power of the two Franciscan Popes. Given our crisis ridden times, it's worth reflecting on how people with a sense of their own self importance and unique destiny can abuse power and authority for their own ends, and employ scripture as their justification.
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