Merry Christmas, dear parish family and to all visitors!
This Christmas of 2025 is extra special not only because it is a Jubilee Year, but also because Christmas Eve marks the unveiling of the yearlong painting of “Macklin’s Masterpiece” in the apse. The apse is the semicircular recess at the back of our church’s sanctuary, which contains the altar of the Blessed Sacrament.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all our parishioners and other benefactors who contributed to the Capital Expenditures Fund to make this happen! Your continued support will allow us to continue onto Phase 2, which will give the sanctuary new flooring and create reredos to frame the high altar and complement the apse mural!
Since January, Joseph Macklin has worked fulltime on the four levels of scaffolding behind a 32-foot high curtain to create a grand and exquisite piece of sacred art. Our hope is that this work draws the faithful more deeply into the sacred liturgy because these two subjects portrayed in the apse reveal what is actually going on in the Mass. The subject of the upper part of the apse is The Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and the subject of the lower part of the apse is The Paschal Mystery.
The Wedding Feast of the Lamb
The last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, depicts heaven as the wedding feast of the Lamb. “Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:6-7).
That Bride, St. Paul states, is the Church. The Church is not a building, but God’s holy people, the saints! St. John describes in his heavenly vision: “I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. (Rev. 7:9). In Joseph’s painting, he has 24 saints representing the Church, that great multitude from every nation, race, people, and tongue, of whom the prophet Isaiah foretold: “As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.” We ask that all of these saints intercede for the evangelization of Jackson and for the well-being of our family and friends both now and for eternity!
The Paschal Mystery
The lower part of the apse depicts The Paschal Mystery, which simply refers to the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Joseph painted from left to right these mysteries of the Easter Triduum on the lower part of the apse: 1) the events of Holy Thursday on the left, which depicts the Agony in the Garden in the foreground and the Last Supper in the distance, 2) Good Friday in the center, which features Jesus’ crucifixion with Mother Mary and St. John at the foot of the cross, and 3) the Resurrection of Easter on the right with Jesus dressed as a gardener appearing to St. Mary Magdalene. These sacred mysteries together make up the Paschal Mystery, which is truly made present to us at Holy Mass!
How Macklin’s Masterpiece Aids Us in Our Worship of God
The Divine Liturgy is an actual participation in the mysteries of salvation, by which the eternal dimension of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb and, at the same time, the historical dimension of the Paschal Mystery are made present to us in real time!
Joseph’s sacred art is meant to make us more palpably aware of these supernatural realities to which we are joined when we celebrate Mass. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are brought to Golgotha on Good Friday and simultaneously before the heavenly throne and marriage chamber of the Lamb in heaven! We join Mother Mary and St. John at the foot of the cross and concurrently join the angels and saints in heaven in adoration of the Lamb of God. Holy Mass is the portal by which heaven and earth meet. We hope Macklin’s Masterpiece makes you more keenly conscious of that mystical reality.
This Glorious Christmas Day!
And this glorious day, we contemplate another mystery, another meeting of Heaven and earth…the birth of Jesus! So, we invite you to take the newborn Babe in your arms and gaze upon His Holy Face! Find rest there. He is not anxious or worried, and He invites us to have peace amidst the trials of a weary world! He invites you into His Truth…long for it! He invites you into His Beauty…ponder it this season! And He invites you into His Goodness which He desires for you and the world! He enters in silence and He reigns in glory; we pause and rejoice at His coming and carry Him lovingly into the world! His invitation is always the same: if you’ve been away, He longs for you! If you’ve been here all along, draw closer!
A most blessed Christmas to you and your kin!
Fr. Chas Canoy
Pastor