A New Kind of Waiting
“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”
Anicka Yi's installation "Biologizing the Machine" presents a striking visual metaphor to contemplate in this strange moment between the leave-taking of the Risen Christ on Ascension and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. The giant amber-hued forms suspended in the dilapidated industrial space evoke a sense of organic life emerging from the remnants of a mechanical, perhaps even post-apocalyptic, past.
The vivid yellow sculptures, with their distinctly biological shapes and textures, seem to pulse with a primal energy, as if they are nascent lifeforms gestating within the womb-like space. This imagery speaks to the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that is central to the Christian narrative, encapsulated in the Paschal Mystery we celebrate during the Easter season.
The moment captured in Yi's work – that liminal state of transition, pregnant with possibility yet shrouded in uncertainty – mirrors our liturgical moment. Just as afterJesus ascended, the disciples found themselves in a state of anticipatory waiting, unsure of what was to come, the installation suggests a world teetering on the brink of transformation, with new life stirring amidst the ruins of the old.
As Jesus prays for his followers in this week’s Gospel, asking that they be consecrated in truth, set apart from the world, yet engaged with it, we feel pangs of emergence and becoming . Yi's work likewise intimates that truth and sanctification may arise from unexpected quarters, challenging us to reconsider the boundaries between the natural and artificial, the sacred and profane. Likewise, as we read in the instructions in Exodus for priestly vestments adorned with gemstones bearing the names of the tribes, we hear hints of embodied identity and representation. Yi's organic forms, while abstract, seem to carry an innate sense of identity and presence, as if they are living ambassadors from a realm beyond our comprehension.
Ultimately, "Biologizing the Machine" invites us to contemplate the mysteries of creation, regeneration, and the interplay between the material and spiritual realms. It prompts us to consider how the divine breath of life might animate even the most unlikely of vessels, transforming the discarded remnants of human industry into harbingers of a new cosmic spring.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
— Our Lord Jesus Christ, before his Ascension to the Father’s Right Hand (Acts 1:8)
Sixth Sunday of Easter (Rogation)
Texts for Today
Prayer
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
A Hymn to the Eternal Power
"O Vis Aeternitatis" is a rapturous hymn to the eternal creative power of God, who orders all things through the divine Word. Echoing the opening words of John’s Gospel, the refrain proclaims that all creation sprang forth at God's willing Word. Yet this Word took on flesh, being formed from the very stuff of Adam. This incarnate Word willingly underwent the greatest suffering, his body torn by anguish, to liberate all through his enfleshment. Hildegard marvels at the benevolence of the Savior who, though divine, breathed in human form untainted by sin's stain to accomplish this redemptive work.
Her lyrics bring to mind again the jewel-adorned priestly vestments, in which the incarnate Word bears the identities of those he came to ransom; the wounded hands of the Risen Christ outstretched as he prays for his Apostles — both on earth, and now at the right hand of the Father.
Hildegard's visionary poetry enshrines the cosmic miracle of the Incarnation, the hinge-point where the eternal meets the temporal, the infinite is made finite, the boundary between Creator and creature is bridged by the God-Man.
As we approach the Pentecost season, her chant reminds us that the self-same Spirit that hovered over the primordial waters now indwells the Church, birthing new life from spiritual wombs. We await the Spirit's outpouring, allowing the greening force of grace to nurture the fruit of Christ's passion within us.
"O Vis Aeternitatis" tunes our souls to the harmonies of salvation history, where the Incarnation is the supreme expression of the eternal Word's ordering love actively transforming and revivifying all things.
